Pokegirl Black and White
by Pokegirl and Thorn
Summary: Mina Hylden was looking for a way out of the downward spiral that had became her life, when the excuse to escape was presented in form of her first Pokemon. But is there any excuse to keep trying with a hellion of a partner, a hippie who knows more than he lets on, and a psychotic team of idiots with a fluffy fire dragon all running around!
1. Prologue

Prologue

Well, where do I begin? I'm sixteen, a girl, 5'6, 113 lbs., black-brown hair, blue eyes….. a high school failure, a wild child, a newbie trainer; well…. Where can you really begin?

I'm a daughter… a friend…. A Pokémon lover…. A sister….. yeah I'm still a sister even if he's gone. He's been gone for about two years now.

It's just me and my mom now…. My dad died when I was young, too young to really remember him. I have a few memories of him: teaching me to play guitar, giving me hot chocolate when I was scared during a thunder storm, letting me dress up his Zoroark like a girl in the frilly clothes I refused to wear; those fun, carless memories that make you laugh and feel like a child again. But those fun, careless memories are I can grasp at when it comes to my biological father. My mom's a flake so she wasn't much help trying to remember him either; she still spends a lot of time crying. It's been eight years and she still won't let go.

I did used to be a sister, but then…. then…. well… Gavin really just…. disappeared. I can't really say he left, because he said he would always be with us. After dad died, he took over the 'man-of-the-house' role; got a job and everything even though he was only fourteen at the time. He got a job at my uncle's Pokémon Day-Care….. he was our provider for the longest time… and then he just disappeared.

He had tucked me in that night before he was gone, gave me a kiss, and said all would be well. Like a fool I believed him. The next morning he was gone… and from that point on I was always alone. Brutally. Honestly. Truly. Alone.

I don't have much faith in people anymore… I only have a few friends….. Two of them actually are going on a journey with me… the third… Rekikio…. Well, she had some other stuff to do. Don't think that means I don't try, though. I've been told that I make everything a confrontation, and I'm not really sure what to make of that. I guess I'm just better at making frenemies than actual friends.

I could begin my tale any number of places... the time when I first met my friends, the time when my heart was shattered into a million hateful pieces, the time I told someone I loved him, the time I nearly died, the time I betrayed my friends, or even the time I realized who meant the most to me in the world.

Heh, where _do_ you really begin? I can't say I've ever been in love or anything like that. But I'm not some hopeless little princess waiting for some guy to come sweep me off my feet; I've always been able to take care of myself, and I don't plan on changing anytime soon. Domestic life just isn't for me; I'm a fighter. I'd rather go out on an adventure than sweep cottages or cook meals, not that I haven't tried that. But I guess we all just go through those 'phases'. You deal with them, you move on.

I guess that's it really… this is where I begin. They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and my story is no exception. Just… I guess some journeys acquire a mind of their own somewhere along the way, and I suppose mine is one of those kinds. So I take my first step… my first step into the oblivion that would take seven years of my life, take my courage, take my fear, take my world ultimately, and this is where it begins.

"_This is not the end, this is not the beginning…. Though the words sound steady something's empty within them…. "_

"_Waiting for the End to come"_

_Linkin Park_

**Part one:  
**

**The ****Beginning of Trus****t****  
**

* * *

**Hello all! It's Pokegirl and my Serperior Thorn!**

**Thanks for taking a look-see I know its a bit repetitive, but that was the point.**

**Please keep reading, it gets good and I wanna make sure everyone knows this is a bit of a ferriswheelshipping****, but this story is not solely a ferriswheelshipping one, and is an** actual series through several of the Pokemon Games and will span several regions and the like.  


**Thorn-"Haters press B"**

**Enjoy and see you next time!**


	2. Chapter 1: There's a Snivy in my Face

Chapter 1: There's a Snivy in my face

My bed was soft and warm, and smelled of new sheets. My pillow was tucked under my head, soft as a baby Lillipup's fur; I nuzzled my nose deeper into it, inhaling the fresh cottony-lilac smell of our Landry soap. I wrapped my purple duvet comforter more tightly around me, forming a cocoon of Indigo and warmth. My mind was stuck in that fuzzy half-asleep-half-awake realm, and dream-like images were fogging my perspective on reality. The whole house smelled like sourdough bread toast, which wafted up to my nostrils through the crack in the door.

It may sound blissful right now, but I had been busy this morning…. In a bit of a lazy way I guess. I had expertly hid my alarm in a pile of shoes underneath my bed, thick leather and soft canvas muffling its annoying chirp. My mom had threatened to barge in with the vacuum cleaner because she knew it would get me up, but a couple squeaks of the bed, and the clacking noise of opening and closing a few bed-side drawers was enough to ward her off for now. Sun had stubbornly streaked through the cracks in my dark purple curtains, but I had reached up to yank them closed to return myself back to the dark pre-morning world of sleep.

Yup, all was well.

_CRASH! _There was a loud, splintering noise from the general area of the door that lead into my room from the hallway. I closed my eyes tighter; hoping it was just the half-dream world playing tricks on me. To my dismay, the next sound was a dreadful _CRUNCH! _and the sound of thick wood hitting the ground assured me the assault on my door was real. My eyes popped open with the sudden noise.

I rolled over, tucking my head into the purple cavern that was my blanket, and shut my eyes again. Long strands of hair acted as a sleeping mask, blanketing my eyes from the outside light; if only they acted as ear muffs too, quieting the sound of wood as it thunked to the floor. My foggy dream world was gone, and a grouchy reality was taking its place. I hoped to god that mom had just done something out in the hall, and that my bedroom was still relatively in one piece.

My hope was in vain. Stupid, stupid, hope.

I let out a startled _OOF! _as a heavy mass came down on my pelvis. The force of the attack knocked me flat onto my back under the blankets, tipping me over from my position on my side facing the wall. The attacker proceeded to bounce up and down on me, hands trying to whip away the blanket protecting me from the outside world of pisstivity. I sucked in precious breath between the bounces, as the sheer weight was crushing it right back out of me each time my assailant came down on me. The positive, if there even is one, to this awkward situation was that my attacker was relatively _soft, _with a cushy behind and gentle hands. Wait, why was I taking time to recognize traits of my _SEXUAL HARRASSER?!_

"HEY! Mina! Come on its time to wake up! Professor Juniper was here! She left us something! Come on, Cheren and I are here so we can get our first Pokémon and go on a journey and…." The voice of my attacker was cut off by a sound that likely meant a hand was slapped over its mouth. _Wait, I know that voice…._

With a mighty effort, I rose up out of bed with enough force to throw my attacker to the ground, which indeed she did land upon with a mighty _THUD. _The blanket settled on my head and fluttered around my raised form. I pulled the cover off from over my head, and glared out at my visitors.

My two best friends were in my room: the blond-haired and spazy Bianca on the floor, the tall-dark-and-freaky Cheren hunched-over, looking exasperated in the corner. My room was in utter disarray, the door a splintered mess, with said extremely large and extremely _pointy_ chunks of wood strewn about. My blanket, and several other bed-like things, had fallen to the floor in my giant upper cut to remove Bianca from my person, and they had knocked over the expertly arranged pile of shoes concealing my alarm clock. The clock glowed bright red in the depths of the shoes, proclaiming it to be 12:36 pm. I had successfully avoid getting up for an extra four hours since my alarm was initially supposed to go off; of course I wouldn't have heard it, should it have gone off, me being amazingly clever to hide it in all.

Bianca had obviously been the one to jump me, as she was rubbing her now sore tail-bone with a tear pricking the edge of her lime green eyes. She pushed herself to a shaky standing, but then plopped herself down on the bed with me with me with happy-puppy look on her face, all previous events forgotten.

Bianca had a bit more of a fuller frame than me, with a stocky build and a soft body. Her hips were the most apparent thing about her, and they brushed my own puny hips as she sat down next to me. She very filled out for a teen my age, but her body still had the pudgy overall form of preteen, chubby cheeks, stubby fingers and all. Bianca was also sixteen, like me. Cheren too.

"Professor Juniper left you something! She left something for us all! I so excited, we're starting our very own Pokémon journeys today! Ooh I can't wait to pick out my starter…." Bianca had dropped my hand, which she had been mangling in her excited grip, and leapt from my side on the bed, and now was examining every inch of the purple wrapped package sitting on a table I had initially missed. It was a large square box, wrapped in shiny purple paper, and tied up with a bright red bow. It was kitschy in a cute sort of way, the way you'd expect a Christmas present to be wrapped.

A hand clamped down over Bianca's shoulder, and Cheren proceeded to drag Bianca away, as she had been trying to lift the lid to access the treasures inside. Cheren dragged and dropped her next to my bed, not very gently I might add. "Bianca, the present was delivered to Mina's house, so that means she should get first pick…." He frosted down at her, his inky blue eyes peering out from under his steely-red glasses. Bianca crossed her arms and pouted.

"Well hurry up then, Mina! I wanna meet my new Pokémon!"

I gave an earth-encompassing yawn, and rolled out of bed. Literally. My knees slapped the floor as I landed on all fours like a Pokémon, making me wince as my scraped-up knees stung with pain. I hiked my shirt down, which had come up in the process, and grasped the edge of my bedside table to creep to a standing, re-affixing a Band-Aid that had started to peel off my ragged-skinned knee with a sour grimace. I had gotten into a bicycle accident a few days ago, totally F***ing up my bike and giving my knees some wicked road-burn. The skin surrounding the wound was an icky rust-brown, and still itched from the gravel that had gotten stuck in it upon meeting the road sliding a fifteen-miles-an-hour. The bleeding had pretty much stopped though, so that was one less thing to deal with.

Bianca came up behind me and peered over my shoulder, soft blond bangs hitting my forehead. Cheren came up on my other side, casting a tall shadow over my head. He looked as eager as Bianca to see what was inside, but was much better at keeping himself contained. Bianca on the other hand was bouncing up and down on my heels, the toes of her solid white Mary- Janes stepping on the back of my heels.

I reached forward to the box and grabbed the ivory colored tag that hang from its fluffy red bow. On the card in neat, typed lines read: _"I brought three Pokémon, one for you and one for each of your friends. Please settle your choices politely. Oh, and Mina, don't leave your door unlocked. Someone might get in. –Professor Juniper"_

I suddenly felt very violated. So that's how this stupid package got in here anyways, Professor Juniper just waltzed up to the house, came in, and left. _Did mom even notice her?!_

I didn't have time to go on a rant, though, as Bianca had already leapt over my shoulder and pried the lid off the box. I flinched back as she grappled at the box lid, squishing herself all up in my personal space in an effort to get at the insides.

"Bianca!" Cheren cried, wrenching her grabby fingers off the box in one quick motion, holding her hands hostage at his side.

"Well, she was taking too long! Sorry Mina, but I really want my Pokémon!" Bianca said, looking as eager as a child does when it has to go to the bathroom. She bounced up and down like a spring, bouncing in her restrained position at Cheren's side, and Cheren just eyed her pitifully.

I took a deep breath, trying to quell the overwhelming urge to _smack them both upside the head._ "Ok, back it up! Everyone, take five steps back! I love you guys and all, but it's too damn early in the morning to deal with this," I said grouchily over my shoulder, furrowing my brow in a most ugly-looking way. Or, at least, it felt pretty ugly.

"But it's past noon now, so technically, it's not morning any-" Cheren started before it being his turn to have a hand clapped over him mouth. Bianca's pale hand lay over his face, obscuring half his vision, as in her struggle to reach his height she ended up slapping her hand over half his face, and causing his glasses to go askew.

"Ooh… I guess we'll just be patient then…"

I let out a firm_ hmph _before returning my gaze to the box. I _was _pretty interested to see what was inside, and having first dibs on whatever it was pretty good encouragement as well. I placed my hands on either side of the box lid, took a deep breath and lifted. The box's lid was off with a gentle scrapping sound of cardboard; _wait why are there holes in the box?_

With a loud shriek, a green form launched itself up and out of the box, and landed right square in the middle of my face. It clung on with its sharp little clawed arms, and wrapped itself around my neck, little leaf tail tickling my cheek. "WHAT THE HELL?!" I cried stumbling backwards at the suddenness of the attack. My legs to tangled beneath me, and that heart-jumping fear of falling struck me as I attempted to re-gain my balance despite the _thing _clinging to my face.

The little green creature had turned away from me, succeeding in scratching up the sides of my face, hissing back into the box with a fire so angry it seemed unsuited for the little creature _"YOU DARE SPIT FIRE AT ME?!" _it flicked its tail agitatedly, the sharp edges of the huge leaf adorned on its tip digging into my soft cheek skin. It wriggled and writhed some more, trying to get a look back into the box at his apparent foe.

A stuffy-sounding voice came from the box and then a pert little Fire Pig's head poked over the edge, eyeing the thing on my face with a mixed look of fear and apathy _"Sorry *snuffle* I sneezed. I didn't mean toooooAACHOO!" _it snorted fire as it let loose another sneeze, knocking it back into the box with a thump. The fiery embers fell to the ground, glinting slightly with Fire Pig snot.

The Pokémon attached to my face untwisted himself from me, and turned to face the box, holding on only by my bangs, which it had clasped it's hand around tightly, the other pointy nub pointing accusingly at the other Pokémon in the box "_You must die, stupid insignificant fire-type! You will wish you just looked at me sideways, whelp!" __With a snarling scream_it launched itself off my face, and back into the box, topping it over upon landing. Three stout forms went plummeting to the ground, along with the backward-flying me.

I was knocked back, and landed on my butt; oh and on one of the splinters of my defeated door I also might add. I rubbed my butt, plucking the splinter from its place lodged in my jeans. Flicking it aside, I turned my eyes to the scene in front of me, the noises of scuffling and muffled curses drawing my attention away from my aching booty. Boy, what a scene it was.

The green Pokémon that had attached itself to my face, that I now see was a Snivy, was throwing books that had been laying peacefully on the floor at a distraught Tepig, who was trying to sluggishly dodge them in its sick state. The other one to tumble from the box, Oshawott, was cowering, hiding it's head underneath the discarded box lid, little head peeking out, crying great blue streams of tears from its eyes _"Stop! Stop it! You've been at it all morning, just stop already!"_ it wailed.

Snivy paid no attention, and pounced on Tepig, as he had run out of ammo to throw. He and Tepig rolled violently, their movements a flurry of claws and teeth.

Cheren was watching fascinated, eyes fixed upon the trio on the floor. Bianca was freaking out, a very mirror of the howling Oshawott , back bent to stare down at the fight. Her head whipped back and forth as she looked from me, to Cheren, to the frenzy on the floor. "Wait what's going on?! What are they saying? Please stop fighting!" She wailed, perfectly in time with Oshawott's cries.

_Wait, she didn't understand what they were saying? I could understand them clear as day…._

_Well, whatever. THIS IS ENOUGH. _I gritted my teeth, and pushed myself to a kneeling position. Placing hands fully on hips I yelled with all my might "For Archeus's sake, cut it out before I throw you all out the window and go back to bed!"

The fighting stopped as abruptly as it has started; Snivy had its mouth clamped over Tepig's head, a sharp little tooth protruding out from under its curled lip. Tepig's eyes were wide with surprise, its teeth gritted in pain. The room fell silent in the absence of the noises of the battle, all eyes on the twisted duo on the ground. With a grunt, Snivy spit Tepig out of its mouth; nose wrinkled up like it had tasted something terrible. With a spiteful glare at us all, he wiped off his tongue.

Cheren reached down and untangled the two, picking up Tepig and holding it high above Snivy's feeble reach. Bianca picked up the frantic Oshawott, clasping him to her chest like an infant. Snivy looked left and right at the other Pokémon, glaring at their feet which had been lifted high off the ground. It narrowed its eyes to look at me as it rolled over onto it butt to sit _"Hmm, it appears you are the only one who has not chosen. You'll do… I suppose. Beggars can't be choosers. Be grateful for the honor of getting to take care of me." __he_ said, looking out from under his hooded red eyes. They were flickering with mild interest, his thin black disk-shaped pupils inquiring me on what I was to do next. His disapproving stare burned into me.

I realized this was indeed correct, as Bianca had Oshawott, and Cheren Tepig, which left me with Snivy. I grunted at my new Pokémon, offended at his blunt show of delusional authority ; _well if that was the way that little creep thinks things are gonna be, then I wasn't going to be the lower end on the totem pole._ Summoning up my composure, I got off my butt and strutted over to Snivy, staring him down just as he had me "You don't own me, I own you. Let's get this clear now, you freaky weed. I call the shots, and you will deal with it." I frosted him with a look of my own. His mildly interested look slid off his face, becoming one of surprise as his eyes widened and his pupils filled in the growing red spaces of his eyes.

"Wait, I'm confused. What is he saying?" Bianca said uncertainly. I looked up from Snivy._ Oh yeah she can't hear them…._

"Well it seems we all have chosen our Pokémon…." Cheren observed, pushing his red-framed glasses higher up on his nose.

I nodded "That's what he was saying….." I looked down to the reclining creature beneath my feet. His uptight attitude was already starting to get on my nerves.

Bianca clapped her hands "Well this is great then! There was no fighting, between us at least, and we all got the starters we wanted!" she cuddled Oshawott to her cheek, squealing with delight. Cheren nodded slowly; I just glared at Snivy out of the corner of my eye.

"Yeah…."

"I got an idea, why don't we have a battle? Right now! How does that sound, Mina?!" Bianca jumped up and down, jostling Oshawott around in her arms like a child with her favorite toy.

"Honestly Bianca, they might still be weak Pokémon, but a house is no place for a battle…. I think we've already done enough damage for today…" he gestured to the dismembered door, half on, half off its hinges. Bianca paid him no mind, and ran up to me and grab my hands, playing with my fingers as she pleaded to me.

"Pretty please, Mina? Come on, it will be fun! We can start our new lives with our Pokémon with a resounding battle! Come oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooon" she moved my fingers up and down, playing with them like they were little stubby-nailed joysticks on a game console. Her lip stuck out in a pout, and she was trying to fry me with the full on puppy face.

I glanced down to eye Snivy. He had lost the interested glint to his eyes, and now looked like the prospect of a battle was just a waste of time. He got up and stretched like a Purrloin; his tail flicked uninterested. I smiled evilly… I was about to piss off my new partner and I would be a whole lot of fun. _Serves you right for acting like a violent jerk._

"Of course we'd love to! In fact, Snivy is so eager to battle, he's beside himself…." Snivy flicked his tail up and looked over his shoulder, a bit miffed. But it was time to battle, so any revenge he wanted to exact would have to be later. Bianca flung Oshawott from her arms and he landed on the ground. Snivy trumped over to stand beside me, little green arms crossed, tail flicking crossly.

"Oh dear….. Idiots…" Cheren mumbled from the corner, he and his argument all but forgotten. He settled himself down on the milky white desk chair next to my smooth-topped desk and laptop. A still snuffling Tepig was lying in his lap, bright eyes taking in the whole scene with an avid interest. I bet he was just hoping for the prospect of watching Snivy get roughed up at his own game, but I wasn't gonna let that happen, no matter how much of a laugh that would be. I guess my natural competitive nature just won out in the end.

"Ok, Oshawott, use Tackle!" Bianca commanded, full of vigor for her first battle. Oshawott charged forward, eyes closed, aiming for Snivy's chest. Snivy eyed him carefully, then side stepped, allowing Oshawott to charge by, and run _SMACK _into the desk. A couple stray papers fluttered from the desk, falling gracefully to the ground. Cheren moved him feet a bit so they were out of the way, but made no move to help Oshawott. Oshawott spun around, dizzy from his impact with the cold hard plastic. Snivy just tapped his foot, looking impatient, arms crossed.

_"Please, at least make me try…." _He said snootily. Oshawott shook the dizziness from him in a wild display of shaking ears and flying cheeks, and was ready for Bianca's next command.

"Oshawott, try Tail Whip," Bianca called, a little less certain this time.

Oshawott's eyes grew big, and he whipped his tail around in circles like the very poster child for cuteness. I think I started to drool. I don't know, he was pretty damn cute. Snivy, however seemed totally undeterred, sneering at the cute display instead of falling prey to it like any other Pokémon would normally. He must have amazing self-control to withstand so much cute and not be affected. If I tried that I would fail. Miserably.

Snivy just walked up to a quavering Oshawott, who had started to sweat, seeing his cute act wasn't taking hold. A tiny sweat droplet started to form on the side of his head from having to keep up the act; he still didn't stop waving his tail. Snivy just grinned as he waltzed up. Wordlessly, he grabbed Oshawott by the tail, swinging him around in the air before tossing him over the shoulder like a wrestler.

Oshawott went flying at an alarming pace, slamming forcefully into the bright blue plastic trim that runs along the top and bottoms of the walls of my room; it was really no guess whether or not he could battle still. Bianca ran over to him, and checked him over. Oshawott rubbed his head, which had collided head, heh, on with the wall. A small purple bruise was starting to form, and Oshawott pressed at it lightly with his paw. He glared daggers at Snivy, who just stared over his shoulder prickly at Oshawott, a secret smile concealed behind his leafy collar.

I gaped. _Wait, was he even able to do that? Is that legal?!_ As far as I know, swing-around-like-a-sack-then-throw-it-away wasn't a move Snivy could learn. Hell, I don't even think it's a legit move at all.

"AW! We lost…" she said, looking very much like a big eyed child who had just gotten her candy taken away. "Your turn now, Cheren!" she said, popping back and grabbing him around the wrist, causing Tepig to go spilling to the floor. He was rolled onto his back, little black hooves high in the air, looking a bit like a bug-type someone sprayed with Pokémon Repel. Tepig was quick back up on his feet, obviously ready to get some much-needed revenge on Snivy.

"Ahh… OK…." Cheren mumbled uncertainly as Bianca pulled him around. She placed him directly in front of the old rabbit-ear television I keep in the corner of my bed room; its faded grey exterior was covered in peeling Pokémon stickers: cheeky yellow and white Emolgas; and elegant-looking, flower-adorned Sawsbucks; and cheery crystalline Vanillites. Tepig waddled over to Cheren's side, snorting and snuffling all the way, tiny pig eyes sharpened to a point to skew into Snivy.

Snivy didn't falter, and just stood stoic to take Tepig's eye-threats. I smiled a bit; so this is what rivalry was really like, two Pokémon pushing themselves to do their best to bring out the best in turn of their opponent. This is what being a Pokémon trainer feels like. I think Cheren understood too, a small inquisitorial smile on his face as he watched the two Pokémon circle each other on the floor.

"Tepig take the first move! Use…. Tackle!" Cheren pointed on at Snivy, taking the direct approach. He was not one to waste time trying cutesy tactics. Snivy watched Tepig's oncoming form, wide red eyes flicking back and forth as Tepig ran in a zigzag pattern. As Tepig came nose to nose with Snivy, Snivy leaped off his head, clearing Tepig's on coming body and dodging the attack completely. Tepig, disorientated, slid into a shelf, causing several book and papers to go tumbling to the ground.

Tepig snorted angrily at Snivy's turned back, rising to his feet to stomp the ground menacingly, causing my room to sake and rattle. I watched a plant in the corner by the window shake off some of its bright green leaves and heard the tinkling of frail glass breaking. _Maybe Cheren was right about not having a Pokémon battle in a house…_

_"_Snivy, use tackle!" Snivy sprang forward at an astonishing speed, a green blur intent on its mission to slam into Tepig. Snivy made contact before I could even blink. Tepig went flying, but righted himself in midair, and skidded to a stop on his feet. The purple yarn rug he landed on went skidding with him, and as Tepig charged forward again, it got all bunched up on itself as Tepig tried to get off of it. It was actually a bit comical, Tepig running in place, rug spinning out underneath him like a treadmill.

"Come on Tepig! Jump on him using Tackle!" Cheren urged. Tepig sprang into the air, landing squarely on Snivy, causing them both to fall backwards to the ground with a little _thunk_. Nose to nose again, Tepig and Snivy glared at each other, and commenced to pound each other, back and forth, as they rolled like children in the dirt. One moment Snivy had the upper hand, the next Tepig. They blocked out the rest of the world, ignoring our commands to "GET UP!" and "Stop!" As they steamrollered around the room, various other things were knocked off shelves and light standing objects were toppled over; a tall beige-shaded lamp hit the ground with a _SNAP! _of its pole and a crushing sound of a light-bulb shattering.

It was then, when Snivy finally ended up on top of the heap, holding his tail high, looking like he was about to do something less than pleasant with it, by the look in his narrowed red eyes, that Tepig sneezed. Sneezed _fire._ A resounding "TEEEEPPCCCCCHHHHHHOOO!" and a mini fire-storm of embers and ash was sneezed forcefully into Snivy's face.

It was like time was in slow motion: Tepig brought his head back, then sneeze-spat out all the fire bits; Snivy's fire-red eyes flew open in surprise as snotty globs of ash were plastered to his face. He flew back and into my gaping-mouthed form, slamming right into my face again. We were knocked back, me making those really weird slow-motion yelling sounds that sound like your underwater and yelling into a running fan at the same time, and back onto the bed.

Hot ashy snot covered my face and burned my cheeks and got in my scruffy bangs. Snivy was cemented flat-out on my face, all four limbs flung out like he was trapped in a spider web. His huge red eyes were still wide with disgust and surprise. I heard Bianca let out a sharp giggle and Cheren suck in a staggered breath. Tepig was cackling and coughing at the same time, rolling around on the ground in the splinters and ash; Oshawott's eyes were big as saucers.

After about two seconds of sticky, ashy, shameful shock, Snivy regained his composure, and separated himself from my face. He landed on the floor and stalked up to Tepig's wriggling form. He stuck out a single hand, and flipped Tepig over from his stomach to his butt. Tepig kept laughing, seeing how Snivy's face was red from sneeze-burns, and was shaking so hard he was having trouble sitting.

He didn't sit quaking with laughter for long; Snivy raised his tail around again and bitch-slapped Tepig's face in with all his might, Tepig's thick cheek skin moving faster than the rest of him, as he plummeted into in ground, propelled by Snivy's slap.

Tepig went flying into a pile of fallen paper, sending them up and into the air. They fluttered back to the floor, adoring various surfaces like leaves in the fall. It was really no question whether or not the battle was over or not, as Snivy's forceful slap was like the period at the end of a sentence: final and un-arguable. Snivy was standing hunched over, breathing hard, eyes blazing, wanting blood. His face burns glowed even brighter against his chlorophyll-colored skin, his anger intensifying it to a dangerous Fire Engine Red, rimmed by dark streaks of scorched skin, colored like dried blood. His tail flicker back and forth forcefully, like a Liepard when it receives to much unwanted attention.

Cheren carefully removed Tepig from the mass of papers, cursing when he got a paper cut from a rouge sheet. "So this is what being a Pokémon trainer feels like…." He started as he lifted a droopy Tepig from the paper heap, before realizing what had become of our battle field "WHAT DID WE DO TO YOUR ROOM?!" he yelped, jaw dropping to his brown leather boots.

I glanced around and winced; saying my room was a disaster area was an epic understatement. My bed was in shambles, pillows and blankets flung about, a goopy ash-snot stain on the clean white sheets underneath; Papers, books, trinkets, and other god-knows-what had been haphazardly thrown around the room, a pile of papers here, a fire singed dictionary there, my poor fern void of many of its leaves, them having decided to vacate to everywhere else in the room. My poor TV was half on, half off its stand, rabbit antenna drooping. My desk had a dent on the side from where Oshawott had slammed it's noggin into it, and scratches covered every visible inch of the floor.

I sunk down to my knees; how were we going to get this cleaned up in time to be able to start our journey on time? How would we ever even repair most of this stuff? I sunk down to the ground, rubbing my face in the wrinkled rug, depressed. A loud thud echoed next to me and Cheren's puffed black hair and disgraced face swam into view.

"It's all my fault… I'll never be forgiven… I'm so pitiful… please let me die… oh kill me now so I won't have to live with this shame… oh what will mother think? I will be brought in front of the town jury for vandalism and I'll go to jail and never start my journey…. I'm dirt, pathetic dirt…. Just kill meeeeeeeeeeeeeee…." Cheren moaned into the carpet; face distressed as his words. "dddddddddddiiiiiiiiiisssssss sssgrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaccccccc ccccccccee….." he whined as he planted his face firmly into the ground. His whole body flopped over and he laid, dead weight, on the floor.

I sighed in disbelief and pushed myself up off the floor to stare at him with my face in my hand. Leave it Cheren to blow it out of proportion when it wasn't even entirely his fault. He always worried what adults would think of him, and he worked hard to maintain his stoic image. This side of Cheren was one only Bianca and I ever saw, as Cheren doesn't become unraveled easily. He quivered in his messy lump on the floor and I reached out to run my hand over his single chunk of raised hair on his head. "Let meee dieee…." He moaned at my touch, but I pulled both of us to a sitting, and stared right at him. His glasses were foggy and sideways from being shoved into the ground.

"It's not entirely your fault. If anything it's Snivy's" I sent a dangerous look in Snivy's direction before continuing "It's mine too. Let's just tell mom, and it will be fine. And if you're going to continue to throw a pity party, I'm going to smack you like Snivy did Tepig" I smiled at him. I would never slap him, but I just wanted him to know this wasn't necessary.

Cheren popped up like a bouncy ball, feet firm under him, finger raised in the air "Yes, that's it! I'll confess! That would certainly remind them I really and a good person, and that I can do better! Yes, then maybe I'll only get community service!" he ran from the room and busted through the remains of my door still on its hinges, sending another shower of pointy wooden bits grumbling to the ground.

Bianca and I exchanged glances, her's one of fitful laughter, mine one if utter disbelief. I sighed and reached out to pull Bianca behind me "Better go find him before mom tells him everything's fine, and he hangs himself for being lame" I grumbled. Bianca giggled behind me taking the lead as she jerked me down the stairs.

"Oh Cheren will be fine, he always bouncing back from this kind of stuff! He just needs a little extra encouragement!" Bianca grinned out from under her hat. Her cheeks blushed a bit on the word 'encouragement', smiling secretly to herself goofily. We started to thump down the stair when a wide leafy tail swung into view from above my head, and I felt the sharp edge of it graze my forehead.

Snivy had seated himself on my head, tail blocking half my vision with its wide width. I puffed my bangs aside to glare up at him perched with his back against my pony tail. "Why are you up there?" I inquired.

_"Better view of course. You can't see a thing from down there. Your head is exceptionally cushy as well. Your face had better leverage but I suppose this will do for now." _

He smiled, crossing him arms and settling back in my hair.

I sighed, hiding a secret smile. "Better be ready for a bumpy ride…." I ominously warned, and Bianca dragged us forcefully down the stairs.

* * *

**Hey everyone, it's Pokegirl! oh and this is Thorn, my S****erperior!**

**Thorn-"..."**

**First things first, thank you all how have taken time to read my fanfiction! I can't believe the story's been up a week and i've already have 50 views and a follower! Never woulda thought ! would have that many views! :D Rainbow cupcakes for all!**

**Second, i want to make sure you all know what your reading. This is NOT a complete ferriswheelshipping fanfiction (yes I incorporated some romance in, I can't help it being a ferrishwheelshipping fan-girl :), but first and foremost, this is an adventure and a search-for-self/happiness story. Oh and it gets a bit violent X). Also, the series WILL NOT have a fairy tale happy ending. Not your ship? Get the frigg off and swim.  
**

**Thank you so much, everyone who's reading! Tell me how I'm doing if you care :)**


	3. Chapter 2: Hold yourself together

Chapter 2: Hold yourself together 

Coming down out of the stair well, Bianca and I peered into the kitchen. My pony-tail swung around to the other side of my head, as it was exceedingly heavy and was just flowing with gravity, Snivy having fallen from my head in Bianca's charge down the stairs and was now hanging on for dear life off the end of it; he shimmied up my hair to get a better view of the situation, pulling out thin strands of deep brown hair as he climbed with his little claws. Normally I would have been peeved, but my attention was glued to what was going on in the kitchen.

Cheren sat at the dining table, drinking tea and talking with my mom. With his pinkie up. Like a total nube.

"Well at least he had calmed down… waitaminute."

Cheren was lifting his teacup to him mouth, pinkie up, but his hand was shaking hard. Tea spilled over the brim of the cup, splashing on his chin and dribbling onto his spotless teal jacket. He set his tea cup back in its place on its saucer, hand holding the saucer shaking worse than the one holding his cup. His face was a bad interpretation of a calm expression, his eyes a mask of guilt, sweat droplets gathering at his temples.

I stand corrected, his suicide-inducing guilt hadn't subsided; this guy was a ruffled mess.

"So as I was saying, Mrs. Hylden, I'm really sorry about messing up your daughter's room. It really was all my fault, if there's anything I can do..." Cheren's face was going pale, the confidence he had displayed just moments ago flaking away like pastry crust. He was about to snap. His hands messed with the spindly white handle of the cup in his lap, itchy sweat pouring down his neck.

"Oh it's no big deal, Cheren. Mina did that all the time as a child, I really don't mind cleaning up. Besides you have a journey to start today." My mother's soft voice emanated from the sink. She turned to face him, the light brown hair leaking out of her pony tail running over her shoulder in soft waves. In the light you could see my mother's face was soft too, less for wear than you'd expect the mother of a 16 year-old kid; her eyes were free of crow's feet, and her skin was still pulled taught over her cheek bones. Her hair was the color of an oatmeal cookie, and was shiny and long, running the length of her back when it wasn't done up; I definitely got my hair dark wavy from my dad; Gavin too.

"But ma'am, really… it's all my fault… there must be something I can do…" Cheren's whole body was shaking with guilt, his façade disintegrating, his sanity only holding on by a silk string of a thread; his face had twisted into a disturbingly awkward smile. "I… I…"

There was a tinkling loud thunk, and Cheren had slammed his teacup and saucer into the table, spilling sticky sweetened tea all over its ivory tablecloth. "Please forg-" Cheren started like he was about to collapse to the floor and grovel, when I vaulted over the thin banister in the hall that separated the stair well from the kitchen, Snivy still on the bottom end of my ponytail.

I pushed him down into his seat, and coolly said "What he means was, we had our first Pokémon battle upstairs and we messed up the room a bit…"

"And Bianca broke down the door…." Cheren added in a thin guilty voice.

"…And Bianca was a little rough on the door…." I added; Bianca behind us shuffled. "I'm sorry mom. Do you want us is clean up?" I summed up, blowing Snivy's quivering leafy tail from my face.

Mom laughed again "Oh the joy of youth. It's not a problem Mina, glad to hear you're enjoying your new Pokémon. I'll get to it right after breakfast but first, eat." She walked over and slid a huge bright yellow plate in the center of the table, and flanked it with a few jars. The plate was overflowing with thick slices of hot and fresh sourdough bread toast, surrounded by a crown of fresh fruit. Thick and sweet Sitrus berry jam and soupy Oran berry preserves bordered the plate to one side, creamy Moomoo milk butter on the other, a dainty butter knife hanging out of the open jar. The three of us collapsed into chairs and tucked in, Pokémon in our laps.

Snivy nibbled a butter-spread piece of toast in my lap, soft crumbs falling onto my jeans, causing little greasy spots to appear. I scowled, but said nothing, turning my attention to a thick slice of toast covered in jam, when mom piped up from over by the sink. How you spawn dishes from making toast is beyond me, but whatever. "Eat as much as you want, kids. You'll need your strength for your first day on the journey. If you want more, don't hesitate to ask, I really won't mind the extra dishes, " she giggled a bit, but it sounded hollow in the echoing of her words "If anything, it gives me something to dooo…"

Her words made old, achy feelings rise up in my chest again, clutching my throat so tight it wouldn't allow food to pass through for a moment. It was all I could do to silently beg _"Yes, keep cleaning. Keep yourself busy. Keep yourself from crying" _in hope for her to keep it together; She had not known to do so. I suppose that's a personality trait we both share in some ways.

"Oh, and Professor Juniper called me to tell you she wants to see you all at her lab before you leave. She has a few things to give you. Ok?" Mom looked over her shoulder at us. With the ability to swallow again allowing me to stuff my face a piece of toast half way in my mouth, I nodded, making the toast wiggle up and down with me. Cheren and Bianca made noises around their food in agreement.

"You all should get a move on before long. It's always best to start bright and early when you're leaving home for the first time," mother had turned back to the sink, not looking us. Her movements for tight and controlled, however they were unnoticeable to the untrained eye. That old achiness returned again; I had seen this many times before, and it was happening again, just as I feared. I sighed, trying to ignore the guilt rising up inside me, getting up from the table and pushing my chair back into place, the scraping of two other chairs joining the screech of mine. I picked up my knap sack on the ground and made my way to the door, a still peeved Snivy trailing behind me, Bianca and Cheren on either side of me.

"Are you really going to leave looking like that?" Mom had come over from the sink, and was now looking at my outfit disapprovingly. I looked down at myself as well; maybe I spilled some jam or something.

I had slept in my clothes last night, so I could suck as much sleep as I could out of the morning before I had to get up. My tight skinny jeans were wrinkled and bunched up in odd places, my green tee-shirt a mess of bed-stressed lines, and the bright purple crop jacket I had thrown on at last minute for a splash of color had apparently lost a button during the night.

"I don't know. I was planning on it. You know, keepin' it simple" I deadpanned. Mom gave a small scowl, and pointed a long thin finger at the stair well.

"I won't have you going out looking like a ragamuffin. Go change."

I sighed but did as she obeyed, clunking up the stairs in my purple high-tops. I went into my room, ruffled through my closet, and selected a suitable outfit. I dressed in front of the mirror, fixing a wrinkle here, pulling something down more there. I even reset my scruffy pony tail; might as well since mom would likely yell at me if I didn't. As I strung it back up with a thick red hair tie, a wooden glimmer was caught in the corner of my eye. In the corner of my bed room was an old white wood guitar, well-loved with several of its strings haven been replaced and a few stray scratches on its polished surface.

My dad taught me to play when I was really little, so I was pretty good at by now. I hadn't played it in a couple months, and it now had a fine layer of sandy dust over it. I walked over a plucked one of the strings, hearing the familiar _thwang _as the string vibrated against the body.

I sighed, and grabbed a hat and a purse from the mirror where they were hanging as I made my way to the door. A few moments later I appeared at the bottom of the stairs, my outfit ready to be critiqued.

I was wearing a tight white tank top, covered by a thin black vest. I fixed the jagged white pockets hanging out from the bottoms of my well-worn blue jean shorts, which had several other holes of various sizes all over their front; they were very well broken in. I had slapped black and pink sweat bands around my arms, feeling cushy around my bony wrists. Dull dusty rose colored laces were tightly pulled across the front of my knee-high black boots, hugging the area right below my knees with familiarity.

"Well, is this better?" I ask, fixing my pink brimmed white baseball cap around my pony tail. I had grabbed it at last minute, seeing how awful my hair still looked from sleeping with it up in a ponytail. Snivy was hanging out of the main zippered pouch of my bag, which was the same color as my laces.

Mom smiled, coming forward to fix a stray piece of hair from my bangs that had snaked its way out from behind my hat. "I give you my full approval, my little Pokémon trainer." She leaned forward, pushing up my hat, to give me a kiss on the forehead. "I'll see you soon, dear."

I reached forward for a quick hug. "See you soon too." I broke the hug with a shaky jerk, turning and walking to the big red door that was the entryway to our house. As we walked outside, I felt Mom's eyes looking at us from behind. It took all my strength to keep from running back there and saying I was sorry, that I wasn't going to leave after all. But that would be counterproductive. I would be abandoning my real dream _again _if I doubled back and gave in now. With a grunt, I planted my boots firmly into the ground, the push from its sturdiness propelling me onward.

_"Please don't fall apart while I'm gone…."_

* * *

**Its good to see everyone again! Pokegirl, back with Thorn!**

**Thorn-"I can't believe you haven't named me in the story yet! I'm one of the most important characters"**

**Everyone needs a good build-up, and your naming is just one of the ones coming up soon**

**Mina-"I think your taking the build-up for a certain someone a bit to long, if you know what I'm saying"**

**Where did you come from?!**

**Mina-"Well, he's not scheduled to make an appearance till chapter six; you, as the author, could change that, you know..."**

**Thorn-"Heh, I get a more prominent introduction than that cad did"**

**Zip it both of you. See what you did? You took up the entire author's note box. There's no space left to write anything more...**

**Thorn and Mina-"..."**


	4. Chapter 3: A Pokedex Research Project?

Chapter 3: A Pokedex research project?!

Nuvema town was quiet this morning, save for the chirps of a startled Pidove flock we surprised as we exited my house. They flew away in a flurry of wings and grey feathers, sending a mini dust storm up in their wake. Their dusty feathers swirled around us as we walked on.

Nuvema town is pretty small, located at the southernmost edge of the Peninsula that is the Unova region. It bordered the ocean on its western side, and had an amazing view of the mountains a little more north into town. It wasn't strange to see the town this quiet at 1 in the afternoon on a Monday. Most of the farmers and fishermen in town were having such poor luck in their trades; they often didn't get out to try and fail again to coax something out of the dying land until later in the day, when the unforgiving sun was less strenuous on their attempts. A few businesses were open already though: a bakery was producing the delicious smells of baking bread, a tailor's office was lit up bright and he was hunched over a worn sewing machine, glass wind chimes were tinkling cheerfully under the roof of the local rec center, young kids directly underneath them with intent on smashing them to sparkly bits with dry sticks.

We approached Professor Juniper's lab, a thick metal building towards the center of town. It's blue roof shined bright in the midday sun, sending glimmering streaks of blue into the world around it. There was a rounded archway around the automated door of glass, and as we approached it, it whooshed open, sending a blast of cool air into our faces and ruffling our hair. We stepped inside the spotless lobby.

"No! A thousand times, no!" An angry voice commanded from the back of the room. The three of us exchanged a quick look, rushing in and peering around the corner into the hall where the voice seemed to be emanating from.

Professor Juniper was looking slightly worn down, and a large hulking man in front of her stood in the brightly light hallway, the light blue tiles glowing underneath their feet. They appeared to be arguing. The man must have been the one yelling, as the angry voice was loud and commanding, completely unlike Professor Juniper's calm, cool, and collected tone; _wait, I know that voice_. In fact all three of us do.

Cheren quick swept in front of us, and began to crowd us out of the room, pushing us backwards with his chest and waving his arms up and down like an agitated Rufflet. He seemed eager to get out of this touchy situation we apparently had walked into; I didn't blame him. It wasn't our business…. Mostly. I tried to push him aside, but he was bigger than me, and I ended up just jabbing my finger painfully into his chest; I hissed in pain, sticking my crushed finger in my mouth, spitefully flicking Cheren in the forehead with my other hand. He bit my finger and I let out a strangled snarl, drawing the eyes of the two arguing adults to us.

Juniper's quick green eyes caught us just as Cheren was about to shove us through the door, eyes lighting up. "Over here you three. Sorry about this, we were just having a little discussion…" She cast her eyes to the man that towered in front of her. He was Bianca's father, dressed for work in a tight-around-his-large-girth blue striped button down, a pair of freshly pressed suit pants, and a thick black tie. He must have stopped here on his way to work. And I was already starting to synthesize why he might be here. He looked over at us, eyes narrowing to dangerous points once he laid his beady pig eyes on me.

Mr. Reim stalked over to where we were standing, taking Bianca's wrist in his hand before starting to pull her down the hall. "How many times do I have to tell you? You cannot leave to go on a Pokémon journey!" He jerked her in the direction of the lobby, and she let out a cry of surprise as he forceful yanked her away. She reached out with her other hand, clawing at anything that might keep her from being forced through the door, never again to return to Juniper's lab. Her hands grappled a book shelf, leaving small lines of claw marks on the once-smooth surface. She leaned out and wrapped her feet around a tall potted plant, sending it and its dirty contents spilling onto the ground when her father yanked forcefully at her wrist again.

"Sir, is that really necessary?!" Professor Juniper said, sweeping in front of the charging man. "She's not a child anymore, sir. She's going to have to leave home sometime…" she said gently, trying to wrench Bianca's skinny wrist from her father's grasp. "She's plenty mature now, I've seen it myself."

Bianca's father was about to retort when something else caught his eye. "UHH! Look at this!" He cried, lifting up Bianca's hand. He turned it cover, to reveal a thick woody splinter imbedded in her pale skin. He plucked it harshly from her hand and held it up, the light glinting cruelly off its ragged surface "See? Not even five minutes into her journey, and she's already injured! Yet another example of why she shouldn't participate in a Pokedex research project!"

I turned to stare at Professor Juniper. Cheren's head beside me whipped to look from Bianca to Professor Juniper too, dark hair slapping the side of my face. We sucked in a collective breath. Pokedex projects were so rare; Pokedexes were only given out to veteran trainers or researchers, not newbies who get their doors broken down by friends, and trash their room in their first Pokémon battle. Cheren ran up to Professor Juniper, eyes wide with surprise. "Is that true, Professor?"

Her mouth was set in a grim line, eyes still on Bianca's father, though she nodded, all while keeping eye contact with the big man. He had puffed up a bit during his rant, large rotund stomach hanging over the brim of his pants. Bianca writhed in his grasp, eyes wide with fright and anger. She pulled herself sharply from his grasp to go and stand nose-to-nose with his, standing on her tippy toes.

"Dad, I can do it! I'm a Pokémon trainer now! I'm a good trainer, with a Pokémon and everything. I can totally go on this adventure! I'll have my friends with me and everything, so please let me go!" her big green eyes shiny with tears, her whole body shaking with emotion. Oshawott hugged her leg tightly, looking up at Bianca's father with big glimmering eyes. Together they attempted melted his hard exterior, and he visibly started to slump into ground.

Mr. Reim's eyes roamed over to me again, and his eyes fired up again. He turned back to Bianca, grinding his teeth against one another "I won't allow you to go on a journey with that… wild child! She's a bad influence on you, Bianca Elizabeth Reim! Having her around twenty-four-seven will be nothing but trouble!"

I gritted my teeth, my face pinching up. I took a testy lunge for the man, stomping over Cheren's shoes in the process "Hey, there's no reason for that! I haven't done anythi-"

Cheren grabbed me by the arms, yanking me back to his side with a stern look "Cool it, you're only going to make it worse."

I writhed in his grasp, trying to pry myself from his grip "But I can't just let him do that-!" I snarled.

"Mr. Reim, there is no reason for this." Professor Juniper snapped, jumping back into the situation at the presise time to keep things from getting ugly; 'cuz I totally would have made it ugly, most likely in the form of me smashing in Mr. Reim's face. "I will be in constant contact with all three of them at all times, I can assure you sir. Nothing like _that _incident will ever happen again." She placed a hand on his shoulder, eyeing him carefully like he was a Bouffaluant about to charge "Most of the time kids who go on journeys together often split up and go their own ways. Their only likely to see each other in the towns they'll be traveling through. You honestly have nothing to worry about." She was keeping her tone calm, trying to keep him distracted long enough so she could pry Bianca's hand from him iron grip. With one last grunt, his fingers loosened and Bianca's hand was free.

Professor Juniper rubbed the big man's shoulder, trying to keep the straightest face she could "Also, you daughter stood up to you, another example on how she's is perfectly capable of completing a Pokedex project. She stood up to you to fight for what she believed in. Doesn't that prove how mature she is? " with one last pleading glance, she add "And I'll make sure Mina doesn't get into any real trouble, I promise you, there will be nothing that happens that will won't reach you."

I rolled my eyes at her stupid testament; it was like they were talking about a mental patient, not a sixteen-year-old girl who happened to be a _little _unruly. Still, it seemed to sink into him, and Mr. Reim deflated, staring at the ground in front of his huge gut.

He sighed a bit. "Yes… I see… is so annoying. You see, my wife made the final decision to let her go on the journey without me. I guess I never actually got over it…" He slumped over into a pathetic bundle on the floor, scruffy topped head buried in the tight sleeves of his work shirt. He let out a deep sigh that shook the floor around him, causing him to jiggle slightly. "And I suppose it's just a father's fear about his daughter's safety that gets me the most…"

Professor Juniper reached down and helped him up, dusting his back off with the sleeve of her pure white lab coat. "There, there now. Everything will be fine. She'll be under my watchful eye the entire time. Like I promised, you will be the first to know if anything goes awry" she gently pushed him in the direction of the lobby door, huffing a bit at the effort to move his near dead weight. She lightly shoved him through the threshold, gravity sending him plummeting to the ground outside. He laid like a fallen bowling pin for a moment, before picking himself up from the dirt and giving his scruffy head a shake to rid it of dust.

"Fine, I'll allow it. But you must call me every day! And do try to stay out a trouble. Those are my terms," Mr. Reim crossed his flabby arms over his chest and stared a Bianca. She let out a squeal of delight, leaping forward to wrap her arms around his girth, squeezing him into one of her famous bear hugs. 132 lbs. barreled into him, sending them both plummeting into the dry dust ground again, making Bianca giggle goofily.

"All right now. Well, we really must get a move along. Good to start a journey early, or as early as your students will let you…" She gave me a tight smile as she pulled Bianca from the heap on the ground and dragged her back into the lobby. "Have a nice day now, sir." She smiled strained at the dusty man as she gave him a mechanic wave, waving her arm like it was hinged at the elbow. She pulled us deeper into the building, pushing us into a door, and slamming it behind us. She sunk to the ground, letting out a sigh; little sweat droplets were forming on her forehead underneath her side-swept butter golden bangs.

"Ahhoo, I thought he would never leave…." She smiled at us from the ground, ruffling her hair with one hand. I giggled. _So even the Professor had her limits. _I was happy the meat head was gone too, though. He was _way _too protective; I let my mind wander for a moment_ I wonder of my dad was ever like that with me…_

"Wow! Is this your lab?!" Bianca gasped from the other side of the room, snapping me out of my own mind. Her eyes lit up as she scanned over all the fancy equipment and machinery in Juniper's lab. A monitor was displaying tight lines of information against an electric blue background, and it was hooked up to a huge machine with a giant rotating tracker. Other computers were everywhere, two laptops on a scared wooden desk covered in papers in the corner; three huge monitors were mounted to the wall, casting out reflections back at us in a slightly more rounded view. A huge blue energy converter, attached to yet another computer screen, glowed in the farthest corner of the room, giving everything a luminescent blue hue.

Juniper picked herself off the floor with a grunt, _click-clacking _in her heels over to her paper-littered desk, riffling through the papery masses until she produced a duct-taped clipboard, a dangly grey chain of metal balls attached to an uncapped pen flowing over the top. She did a quick scan of her papers attached to it, making a few quick notes and writing down what looked like to be a memo for herself. _She had really neat handwriting _I noticed with a pouty face.

"You know, I'm not sure what I would have done should Bianca not have been able to come on your journey with you. Speaking of which, I'm sure you're wondering why I chose you for such an important mission," she corralled us to stand in front of the huge recording machine. She then took her place in front of us to address us properly, tapping her pen against her lips like she was trying to remember something.

"I chose the three of you because of how different each of your personalities are. Seeing how you encounter and train Pokémon differently, providing unique information in the ever expanding world of Pokémon, will be great for my research." Cheren, Bianca, and I all looked at each other, turning our heads to look from one to the other. Professor Juniper was right; all three of us were completely different. Cheren was polite and methodical in all his endeavors, never wasting time or energy on unnecessary expenditures, other than when he was in one of his depressed 'moods'; Bianca was flighty and spacy, often flitting about to many things before coming back to the beginning. But she was caring and open-minded, making her accepting and willing to try new things; I was a bit of a trouble-maker, pretty unpredictable and prone to brash decisions. I also had the nasty tendency to lie and be rude, so that would certainty prove to be interesting when it came to dealing with Pokémon. I gave Snivy a sideways glance, thinking about what went down earlier in my room.

"I have no idea what I would have done, should Bianca have to be replaced. You all will be the perfect trainers for this project. And for that, I thank you all for coming." She concluded, giving us an earnest smile before getting on with the program.

"It looks like all went well with claiming your Pokémon" she changed the subject, grinning, back to tapping her pen against her bottom lip. The three of us exchanged a quick knowing glance, but all nodded our heads in agreement; best not tell her of the fuster-cluck that was this morning. Professor Juniper reached down and dared to pet Snivy on the head, which he just stared at her with dangerous red eyes in return, though he didn't lash out at her like I expected him to. She addressed me, still testing her luck with petting him on the head "I can see you finally got your Snivy, Mina…."

I smiled with pride for my new Pokémon, still totally stoked about finally having one despite his obvious personality flaws. All I could ever do since I was a kid was talk about how I would become a Pokémon trainer and get a Snivy to train, and go on a journey, and travel the World. I was teased in return because of how many weaknesses a Snivy has, being a grass-type, and therefore it was deemed a weak Pokémon. Well… needless to say… I got in quite a few fights as a kid, particularly the dirt and pinecone throwing kind. But that was what weight training in high school was for.

Juniper straightened up and looked over her clipboard. "Well then, let me introduce myself again. I am Professor Juniper, the Pokémon Professor, and I work here in my lab with Professor Juniper senior…"

Cheren interrupted, putting up his hand like the good-student he was "Who is your father. Professor Juniper, we already know this. Why are you telling us again?" he sat back again into his stance, shuffling guilty. He almost never interrupted, as up tight as he was. Bianca and I snickered at his adorable guilt trip. He glared at us from the corner of his eye, from under his metallic red glasses, chomping on his lip like he was going to eat right through.

Professor Juniper stuck her finger up in the air and twirled it around "Come on, Cheren, this is not a day to be taken lightly. Today is a day to always remember, so it's best to behave with some formality. That's being so, I am Professor Juniper and I am researching when and how the creatures called Pokémon came into existence." She walked back and forth in front of us, eyeing the ground where each of our Pokémon stood by our side. Tepig was still snuffling, rubbing his nose with a hoof; Oshawott seemed a little scared of all the high-tech stuff in the room, and was cowering between Bianca's legs; Snivy just looked like he'd rather be anywhere but here, itching at his sneeze-burns nonchalantly. Professor Juniper stopped once again in front of Snivy, gazing down at his snot-burned face. He had sucked his mouth bitterly together into a small straight line of discontempt. She raised her eyebrows high into her bangs.

"Well this is unusual! It looks like you've already had a Pokémon battle! That must be why I can tell you three are already starting to bond with your Pokémon." She smiled cheerily. "Ooh I almost forgot. By the way, would any of you like you nickname your new Pokémon?"

Cheren thought for a moment before picking up Tepig and replying firmly "I'd like to keep the integrity of my Pokémon by keeping it named as such." He shifted Tepig to her other hand, pressing it against his shoulder.

Bianca lifted a startled Oshawott up onto her ample chest and pouted "It's too hard to have to remember a bunch of names for all your Pokémon! Plus Oshawott's cute enough of a name already, so I'm good." She ran her head of his head, making him chatter happily.

Professor Juniper turned to look at me "Well?" I thought for a moment as I sunk down to the ground to squat in front of Snivy. He eyed me through his half-closed lids, daring me to name him something he didn't approve of. His mouth was still taunt in a sour line, his face burns still red and sore-looking.

I crossed my hands and rested them on my knees as I thought about this carefully. "Well, let's think. You're hot tempered and feisty. You don't seem to like other people or Pokémon much, you're a bit prickly and stubborn and full of pride…" Snivy's head sunk lower and lower into his yellow collar with each additional observation made about him. His face started to glow red with embarrassment and anger, visible through his angry red burns. Done torturing him I finally said "I think I'll name him Thorn."

Juniper clapped her hands together, wedging her clipboard under her arm. "Wonderful! Now, why I gave you all Pokémon… I want you all to complete a pokedex research project for me. This includes traveling all over the Unova region, battling and catching Pokémon to log into your Pokedex. The Pokedex is a high-tech device that automatically records the Pokémon you encounter on your journey! Pokedexes are extremely important in our continuous quest for knowledge, and it is an honor to be able complete a journey with one," she looked at each of our faces during this part of the speech, taking a moment to inquire deeply into each of our eagerly shining eyes. "It is also a good idea to also visit each of the Pokémon gyms in the Unova region, in order to further your battling skills and to be able to meet many a powerful trainer along the way. However….." she turned away from us, turning to face the beige-colored wall behind her, eyes scanning over all the memorabilia on the wall; there were the obvious diplomas and scientific awards, but she had also tacked passports filled with stamps, letters from pen-pals in all different languages, and even the crudely-drawn picture of a Snivy I had drawn for her when I was in the second grade that I had colored blue instead of green. "You shouldn't restrict yourself to the obvious things in this life. The world of Pokémon is filled with hundreds of adventures and paths that only you can decide whether you want to go down them or not. Becoming a champion isn't for everyone, just as working in a Pokémon hospital isn't for the weak of heart. You should try many things before simply settling on just one path…. The world is so full of hidden possibilities…"

However….." she turned away from us, turning to face the beige-colored wall behind her, eyes scanning over all the memorabilia on the wall; there were the obvious diplomas and scientific awards, but she had also tacked passports filled with stamps, letters from pen-pals in all different languages, and even the crudely-drawn picture of a Snivy I had drawn for her when I was in the second grade that I had colored blue instead of green. "You shouldn't restrict yourself to the obvious things in this life. The world of Pokémon is filled with hundreds of adventures and paths that only you can decide whether you want to go down them or not. Becoming a champion isn't for everyone, just as working in a Pokémon hospital isn't for the weak of heart. You should try many things before simply settling on just one path…. The world is so full of hidden possibilities…"

She finally stopped pacing to stand squarely in front of us again. We all sucked in a breath to await what she would do next. "So, I want the three of you too visit many places and meet all the Pokémon you can!" She concluded, and reached into her immaculate white lab coat pocket and returned with three brand spanking new Pokedexes in her grasp. She handed each of us one; we reached out like hungry Pokémon grabbing for scraps.

The Pokedex was about the size of a cylinder chips can, cut in half, and was shaped like a rectangle. It was as thick as two of my fingers put together. The cover was a shiny pink one, almost the exact color of my dusty rose laces, and it reflected the lights above us with a glossy sheen. The screen was stainless and free of smudges and scratches. I cradled it gently in my hands.

Professor Juniper gave us a huge closed teeth smile, eyes closed and said "So go out there and make me proud, kids! I'll call you on the Xtranseiver from time to time, just to check up on all of you. Have a great trip and I'll see you soon!" She sounded like a happy mother sending her children off to college, happiness mixed in with hints of melancholy.

She opened her eyes, and instantly caught sight of Cheren's finger, his thin, red-line paper cut still noticeable on his pale skin. She clucked at him, shaming him for leaving something like that uncovered, and _clack-clicked _over to her desk again. She reached into a drawer on the left side and dug around until she produced a pale blue box of Pokémon Band-Aids and a disinfecting wipe packet. She walked back over to us and told Cheren to keep his hand still, and proceeded to clean his paper cut with the wipe, covering it lovingly with a fiery orange Tepig bandage. Cheren held it up to look at its smiling piggy face closer, trying to hide his blush.

We all chorused '"thank you"s, Cheren a bit more sheepishly, and "we'll see you soon"s and pushed our way, all three of us at the same time, making it a touch awkward, through the door, into the lobby and then outside.

It really wasn't surprising Professor Juniper seemed so bittersweet at us leaving; she had been like a second mother to all of us. From the moment we all had met her in the second grade, calling us teachers' pets would have been an understatement. We had spent most days after school at her lab, watching her work and peppering her with questions on everything. We asked about so much, she didn't even know the answer half the time. When we got old enough to help, we did all we could to be at her service. We mostly did nonsensical paperwork, checking boxes and stamping her signature and stuff, and other small tasks for her. Once or twice she actually let us help her with environmental sampling on the nearby Route 1, which involved clipping bushed and trees and gathering DNA from various Pokémon. But while we did a lot for her, she did so much for us in return. On her days off, she would pull us from school to take us on a 'fieldtrip' somewhere special; sometimes to Castelia city for Casteliacones and a trip to the battle company for pointers on battling, or sometimes to Dragonspiral Tower to have a picnic, and watch wild dragon-type Pokémon fly around on their impressive wings with their long sweeping tails, their scales glossy in the sun. She even attended our high school graduation; we officially graduate in the 10th grade, since most of us end up going on a journey shortly after, when Cheren's mom couldn't come because she was away for work. When we were at home sick, she'd send us goofy Pokémon cards with pop-outs and stickers that were dusted in glitter, brought to us by her Cinccino. Yes, she had been there for us all these years. I would defiantly miss her, even if she did sneak into my house.

The shining sun blinded us momentarily when we stepped outside, but once the glare reseeded, we were met with the sight of my mother, standing on the cement walkway imbedded with Pokémon prints that lead up to the lab. Her arms were full of brown-bag sack lunches and a few folds of sleek yellow paper, and she was glancing down at a section of the pavement partially hidden beneath a half-dead rose bush. Noticing us, she looked up from the printed ground and came forward to us; face that of one of eagerness.

"Oh, hello you three! I'm guessing everything went well?" her eyes were eager for something, but what, I'm not sure.

All three of us held up our Pokedexes triumphantly, their screens reflecting blindingly in the sun. We explained the events of the past twenty minutes, leaving out a few _obvious_ things, and her eyes were growing wider and wider with surprise. Her brownie-colored eyes finally reverted back to normal size, which she closed as she smiled. She shifted the items around in her hands, pushing each of us a sack lunch and a thick of paper.

"Oh this is so exciting! I'm so ha-happy for you…" she staggered on the most important word in the sentence. My smile began to falter when I realized what was going on. The last thing I needed was for her to break down _right now._ If she did, I don't think I'd be able to leave. At least not leave without feeling completely heartless. She straitened back up, spine stiff.

"Do your best all of you. I made each of you some lunch and I got a few maps for each of you. They'll help you get around the region without getting lost. They show all the towns and cities, as well a few landmarks. Oh, and Cheren, I made your sandwich without pickles and Bianca I added a few packets of ketchup for your carrots, just like you like it. " she smiled again, much more steady this time; my heart thudded uncertainty in my chest, unsure of what exactly was going on in her head. I hardly could ever begin to guess what was going on in there on a normal basis, and I was completely blank on ideas right now.

Shaking my head, I pulled my new map open to reveal a three by three square on gridlines with strategically placed dots. The ocean was a shiny deep blue, the mountains ridges of greys in various hues, the numerous forests of the region outlined in dark green. Towns were marked with bright yellow dots; landmarks in blue.

Cheren tucked his away in a pocket on the inside of his jacket, "I'll take good care of it" with a blush, he looked inside his lunch sake, his face turning an even deeper shade of red after looking at something. He rolled it up and put it in his other pocket, where is bulged slightly.

Bianca dropped her own map and sac lunch inside her over-the-shoulder lime green bag, zipping up the pouch once they were safely inside "Th-thank you so much!"

I scooted Thorn aside, who I had placed back in my bag, and slipped my own map in. He didn't protest this time, just looked bored as I smashed him around, trying to find a place to tuck the map. I gave him a dirty look as he waved around his tail without a care, almost hitting me in the face a couple times.

Mom leaned forward and enveloped the three of us in one massive group hug, crushing us in with all the love and care that only a mother can. I wrapped my arms around her tiny waist, realizing this would be the last time I saw her for a while; it had been forever since we were separated, but that was for _obvious _reasons. Bianca and Cheren wrapped their arms around her frail shoulders, leaning into the hug just like I was. My mother's voice was soft and gentle, caressing us with her heartfelt words "Be safe, all of you. Go out and make all of us proud…"

And then she pulled away, and turned to walk back in the direction of our house without glancing back. Her slippers drug in the dirt, staining the cheery yellow sides of them; she whipped her hands on her apron, and reached up to fix her pony tail. Watching her go, it was all I could do to hope she didn't go home and completely shut off for the next few days. Maybe professor Juniper would check up on her… Professor Juniper was the only other person other than Bianca and Cheren who knew all we'd gone through the past eight years, dad's death, and Gavin's disappearance, and Rekikio leaving…

We watched her receding form as she walked down the curved walkway until she turned a corner near an over flowing half-dead flower bed and disappeared. I felt hands clamp around my wrist on both sides. I looked from left to right, and saw Cheren on one side, and Bianca on the other. Cheren's face said 'I'm sorry' Bianca's 'It'll be ok'. I grasped each of their hands tightly, reveling in their familiar touch. I really do love my friends.

A huge smile overtook my face, pushing way the dark feelings welling up in my gut. Tightening my grip, I pulled us forward, taking a short cut through the trees, pulling them in the direction of Route 1. We hopped over exposed roots and swerved around towering rocks, running like wild children. We kicked up dead leaves that fell from dead trees and crunched over dry sticks. Pokémon ran across our path and scattered from the tree, finding all the noise we kicked up terribly frightening. Cheren fought to regain his breath as we surged through the trees, Bianca wheezing happily at my side, the crunches of their Pokémon following our parade through the trees.

"Where are we going?" Cheren shouted above the noise, peeling a leaf off his head with his free hand.

I turned back for a moment to look at him "Well, where do you think? What are we waiting for? Let's go to Route 1!" Bianca giggled happily to my right, the sheer happiness in it rising above the trees and making me want to run even more. Cheren beside me smiled and dug his feet harder into the ground to keep up. Together, we ran through the trees to Route 1.

* * *

**Hello again all :) So i wanted to say hi and have a quicky chat..**

**yup, mina looks like hilda/touko/whatever-the-heck-you-called-her-when/ if-you-played only with darker hair, and if you didn't know that already, you are sad**

**Gavin, Mina's brother, looks like hilbert/touya/whatever-ect. ect. but is much taller and had longer, darker hair  
**

**Things do get wordy here in there, sorry, but i have to much fun destribing their world :D**

**Heads up, high school sucks, and things might get a bit sketchy around here for a while, so please bear with me**

**Brace yourselves... pokeball truama, a hot green haired kid, and MLP:FIM references are comming...**

**Thorn-"And more about me!"**


	5. Chapter 4: A Voice from the Forest

Chapter 3: A Voice From the Forest

No one else came to bid us goodbye as we exited town. Not that I really expected anyone else to. Bianca likely already said by to her mother before leaving, and she just saw her father; Cheren probably said bye to his mom already too if she was home/awake. All I really had was mother; I didn't have any other friends really to come have a tearful goodbye with or to wish me a good trip. But I'm still grateful for what I can get: two loons and a pissy Pokémon.

We reached the dry-grass field that was the launch for Route 1. We all stooped forward, hands on our knees, wrinkling up our clothes, to suck in sweet spring air into our running-parched lungs. Bianca wheezed deeply, squeezing her insides together with her deep breathes, sounding like a windblown Milktank; Cheren was much daintier in his exhaustion, breathing lightly, sucking in gasps with tight lips like a startled lady. An image of him holding up a tea cup with his pinkie up flitted through my head, making me giggle in the midst of all the heavy breathing.

I took another deep gulp of air, not caring if I was gonna get hiccups from it later; the air was sweet and clear, and filled my body up with the decadent blossom scent that perfumed the entire route. Despite the grass still being brown, it smelled fresh and new, and spots of lush greenery had popped up here and there like fertile islands scattered thought a dead sea. I relished in it all, even daring to pat Thorn on the head, to which he gagged in response.

"Ooh! I just can't take it anymore! I'm too excited!" Bianca popped up like a spring from her near exhausted state, and picked up her shiny white Mary-Janed feet, and sped into the knee high grasses. Her bright orange stockings flashed continuously from underneath her knee-length white pencil-ish skirt in her mad dash into the brush, and once or twice she flashed a bit with a show of green and pink ruffly panties. The tip of her ridiculously goofy green hat bobbed up and down with her sprinting, bouncing around in time with her feather-like yellow-blond bangs that swept out over its edges. She was nothing but an orange clad doll on the verge of the forest now.

Cheren let out an irritable sigh and dashed from my side into the grass. He let out a sharp curse as he stepped in an undercover hole, momentarily disappearing into the brush before reappearing with a few sticks and bits of rocks in his hair. He yanked his sleeve off where it got caught on a prickly bush with a loud rip.

"Bianca! Have some decency! You're showing all over the place, you nincompoop!" he crunched through the dead grasses on well-polished brown boots, which were probably becoming filthy as we speak, their strings flapping around, the mini-heels sinking into the ground. He quick spun on heel to shout back at me, running backwards "Hey! We'll catch up with you in Accumula town! Don't get lost!" He then turned and sprinted full force into the woods, shouting out for Bianca this time "Bianca you're going to get lost and die, and Professor Juniper will be furious and she'll kill all of us all and you'll be sorry and BIANCA! DON'T EAT THAT!" he yelped out and there was the sound of thick foliage being thrust aside and the grating noise something being barreled over, then… exceptional silence.

I gave a sigh, and stood up, messing with my ponytail. Cheren and Bianca were quite the pair; Bianca wasn't half as ditzy as she let on: she had brains and plenty of intellect that would smash us all into crumbly bits in the dirt should it ever be tested. Cheren, as seen this morning, as far less clean cut and put together than he might seem. He's a total jackass at times, and sometimes a total suck up, and even on occasion a suicidal mess. He'd never actually do it though; he gets depressed over stupid stuff all the times, then bounces right back.

And put the two of them together, you got polar opposites who just happen to know how to find amazing things in the world around you, all while making you laugh your butt off, and making you want to kill them at the same time. I was thinking fondly of them some more, when a sickened growl came from my purse.

_"Just to let you know, I got sick during you guys' little skippy-happy-puke-fest just then. You might want to do something about it before it crusts over." _Even through his nausea, Thorn still had the cheek to sass me. He had climbed up on the strap that crossed over my back, and was hanging on a bit woozily, tail swaying freely. His eyes were mildly amused with the news he was telling me, pupils thick and black and mocking. 'U mad bro?' his face grinned.

Flame filled me up and my eyes gleamed red as Thorn's as I reached out to grab him with hooked fingers. "You… will…pay… or at least clean up what you hacked up…" I was about ready to tear his flimsy fingers of me and toss him into the river; actually the Route 1 water way, but it was the closest thing. What can you do? Improvise, that's what.

I closed my hand around his skinny arm and hauled him up in front of me, tiny feet tangling in the air. He stuck his nose up in the air _"Please, stop talking. You take care of me, remember? I don't think abuse is on the list of things owners do. Does 'I own you' ring a bell?" _he quibbed. My eyes went crooked, one blue eye bent into a squint, the other opened wide to size up my opponent, hands shaking as I started to pull my arm back to fling him away.

_"Do you see it…?"_

A voice broke through my rage. I turned left and right, looking for the source of the voice, Thorn twisting with me, head hitting the middle of my back right before I turned the other direction to look.

"Huh? See what? Hey, Come on out!" I shouted, my voice echoing through the empty air. I heard Thorn suck in a staggered breath behind me and start to make gagging sounds. I wasn't sure is he was faking to eff with me or if he was really about to wretch up more of whatever was now sitting in a gelatinous pile in my poor bag.

_"Tell me, do you see it?!" _the voice came again, seemingly right beside my ear. I whipped around to stare at the trees we had just exited in our run to Route 1. I saw nothing but shadows and trees; not even a Pokémon stirred.

"See what? Who are you?" I cried, bringing my arms, which had still been hanging in the air from trying to launch Thorn out of my sight, down to my sides and tightened my grip. I heard Thorn squeak a bit as I clasped my fingers tighter around his stubby right leg, and he flailed his arms as he proceeded to be hung upside down like a rag doll on my grip, a toy a child grabbed in the fit of her nightmare before dashing to the safety of her parents' room. For all I knew, this really could be a nightmare, and this voice could be pointing me to look to my death. Like staring into the face of Darkrai or something. The thought of looking into his empty face gave me a shiver down my spine.

_"It matters not right now. Can you see anything?" _the voice swept by my ear again, soft as the wind through the trees. The voice was too neutral to tell if it was male or female; it resonated in my ears, sounding as soft as the noise of petal falling off a flower to be blown away in the breeze, or the sound of water rippling after a stone was thrown in a pond. It sounded rushed and anxious beneath the tone, like gentle white clouds being swept up in a wind that would eventually become a tornado.

I vaulted back around to glare in front of me, back into the scraggly bushes of Route 1. I scanned the air in front of me before I saw… something. The air quivered slightly in front of me, almost like there was a force field there or… something translucent. I blinked trying to make sure I wasn't seeing things brought on by hallucinatory anger, but the quiver was gone when my eyes scanned the clearing again. _Huh… I must have imagined it… Dammit Thorn's making we wacko already…_

"No… I don't see anything…" I replied to the voice. The wind whistled lonely through the parched landscape, rattling creaking bone branches together and sweeping dry leaves off their frail steams to spiral dejectedly to the ground. It was quiet, save for Thorn's numb mumbles and my own shallow breathing.

_"I see…"_

All was soundless again after the words filtered through my ears. I stuttered a bit "So, um… are you… my… um… conscience?" I mentally face-palmed myself for uttering those unspeakably cliché words. It was like one of the time honored Worst Things to Say When You Hear a Random Voice from Nowhere; but hey, it was worth a shot. A personified conscience might provide for some… interesting… comments.

_"Perhaps I am…" _the voice echoed before fading away. Then nothing was left but the sound of leaves rustling. I felt no more presence, not from the mysterious voice, nor from the translucent shape I swore I thought I had just seen. Thorn let out a disgruntled yelp from my hand, and peered around to see his pointed face.

_"Are you quite done talking to yourself? I'm starting to get a head rush! Put me down!" _ He growled in a high pitched voice, sounding like a child that's unhappy on a carnival ride. I flipped him right-side up in a flurry of leaves and plant-like things, then proceeded to plop him on the ground.

"Happy now? Good. Come on. Let's get going. I want to get to Accumula Town before nightfall, and find something for your face. Your burns will scar, and unless you want to be a disfigured creep, which I will happily abide to letting you be concerning I 'own you' and therefore only want what will make you happy, and would be happy to make that possible for you, I need to find some herbs for that." I took off without waiting for an answer from him into the crunchy grass. There was a moment of the sound of my thick ridged rubber soles mashing the lifeless grass underneath alone before the little crunches of Pokémon feet following me. We trampled through the grass, avoiding the hole Cheren had stumbled in, Thorn silent as the grave.

"So how do you work a pokeball anyways?"

* * *

**Hmm, Thorn do you remember when that happened? You were looking at Mina like she was a nut case and she threatened to bury you alive?**

**Thorn-"... she would never make good on that promise... and yes... she is crazy..."**

**Whatever my dear. Anyways... what about the 'quivering firgure'? and the mysterious voice only heard my Mina? Don't start betting on who it might be yet... the answer might surprise you ;)**

**Thorn-"I'm telling you... she imagined it all..."**

**Hush.**

**"And you made Darkrai sound like slender man.."**

**Next time... the mini journey on the way to Accunula Town, and special someone makes an apperance... or does he?**

**ONWARD!**

**Thorn-"... your ignoring me now... aren't you?"**

**Zip it, were done now**


	6. Chapter 5: The Beginning of Trust

Chapter 5: The Beginning of Trust

Route 1 crackled and crunched under our feet as we journeyed deeper into the tree cover. Trees knocked their skinny bare branches against their neighbors' in mock fights. Bushes reached out with their dry and depressed roots in hope of finding something to drink. A stray Pokémon called out in the distance; other than that, all was quiet.

Route 1 was a wasteland. In fact the entire region was. We've been in an extreme drought for the past two and a half years, and little or no rain has fallen in months. I mean it was April: there were supposed to be plump gray rain clouds that sprinkled rain gentle enough your parents would let you go out and play in it, and happy shiny rainbows that stretched over the entire sky, and thunderstorms that kept you inside drinking hot cocoa and watching feel-good movies; instead there was depression and dehydration and death. A dead Pokémon carcass had attracted a black cloud of flies that scattered when we traipsed near it. I didn't look at its death-mangled face; I was too busy arguing with Thorn.

_ "...and you are supposed to be some Pokémon prodigy of Professor Juniper's and yet you have no knowledge of the simple pokeball? You are such a disappointment" _Thorn had obviously recovered fine from his little throw-up spell, and had proceeded to make fun of my inadequate knowledge of many things, after of course, he was done ignoring me. His arms were crossed, his nose up, beady red eyes looking at me distastefully over the shoulder. _"And I suppose you also think it's pronounced 'X-transceiver' too, am I right?"_

I rubbed my temples agitatedly. All I had asked was if he knew a thing about pokeballs. He was the one who went off on a rant about what I did or didn't know, and what I was supposed to know or not know. Even obscure stuff like 'do you know how much a potion heals a Pokémon' or 'do you know if the taco sauce hotter from Taco Bellsprout or Ludicolo's Mexi-cali Shack' or even 'how many times did Derpy appear in the background during MLP:FIM season 2?'. Bitch, I haven't seen past season 1, and thanks for rubbing it in. I wanted to bitch slap that thing's face in soooooo bad. First day on the job, and I already wanted to SKIN my partner alive; wonderful. Utterly marvelous. This was going to be a _wonderful _trip. Ignoring my rapt thoughts of ways I wanted to skin Thorn with a spoon, I straightened up and walked a bit faster, walking ahead of the little monster.

"I don't have time to argue with a two-foot-tall weed with an attitude problem. I just want to find some frickin' Rawst Berry leaves so you can stop having an attitude cuz' your face looks like a charred half-raw steak. Zip it and help me look, or so help me, I'll turn you into salad" I glared over my shoulder at the ivy green midget. _Where the hells a falling anvil when you needed it?_

_ "Fine. I'll stop so you don't look like a lunatic talking to yourself. Oh wait, you already got lunatic covered. You do know no one else can understand me, correct?" _his mouth was drawn up in a little upside down 'V'. He seemed to have no intention of helping me look for something that was for his benefit, much less stop teasing me. We had entered a patch of thick foliage, and the tree cover had grown exceptionally thick. Small, scraggly ringed patched of light were all that streamed through the trees. Travel through the exceptionally bright patches was blinding; through the shadows, our eyes readjusted in momentary blindness of splotchy colors before being fried again by the sun beams. In the shadows, Thorn's red eyes were bright with mischief through the blindness.

"Yeah, I gathered that...HEL-LO what have we here?" I pushed aside the thin fingers of a fern to reveal my prize: a slightly dead Rawst Berry plant. All its berries were long fried by the endlessly beating down sun, but it looked like some of the leaves had survived. Several were crusty and brown, but a few lucky leaflings were still teal blue and plump with health. Thorn pushed his head through my hair to stare down at the partially sun-bleached plant.

_ "What? Is that really what you've been looking for? A dead plant with color-identity issues? Please, if you wanted something void of life that smells awful, we could've picked up that Lillipup carcass a coupla' yards back.." _he wrinkled his pointy noise in disgust.

"Yes, but I'm gonna rub this on your face. Would you really rather rub your pointy mug in a rotting carcass verses a plant that may be a little unhealthy? Hey, it's your burn, your choice..."

_ "Valid point... continue."_

I scooped him up and plopped him down in the shade of a tree near a pot-hole of sunlight. I crinkled up the less-dead leaves of the Rawst Berry plant I had picked in my fingers, packing them tightly together. I lifted a few leaves to my mouth, and began to chew.

Thorn watched me, mildly intrigued, as I masticated the leaves up thoroughly in my mouth. They tasted slightly bitter, with a mild cooling feeling in the back of the throat like a Rawst Berry has. I peeled a mushy lump off my tongue with my sap-sticky fingers, and then mushed it along the angry red line of Thorn's sneeze-burns. He recoiled back at the first touch of the slimy, stingy-in-a-good-way feeling leaves, but eventually loosened the more I added to his wound. He sat back against the tree trunk, relaxing as I went about my work. His eyes traced my every movement, starting with me grasping the tightly packed leaves in my fist, tracing it up to my mouth, then watching my fingers spread the chewed-up leaves over his nose. I kept myself from staring at him by busying myself with building little sandcastles on the bride of his nose.

_ "You know I could've healed myself, right? All I needed to do was sit in a patch of sunshine for a while, and I could've healed my own self. I can conduct photosynthesis like a plant..."_

I slathered the last of the leaf goop onto his nose, and sat back. The chewed-up leaf mash was piled nice and high over the bridge of his nose, covering the burns entirely. Thorn has also visibly become less tense throughout the process, the egging pain from the burns receding now.

I dug around in my pink bag for the sack lunch as I answered him "...well... no, I didn't know that. There are a lot of things I don't know about Pokémon, or what they can do, or abilities, or anything like that. What I do know is that Rawst Berries and their leaves can heal burns. Professor Juniper taught me that... also I know that I'm hungry, and it's time for lunch." I pulled out the thin brown paper bag and set it in front of us. I unrolled the tightly coiled top.

Nestled inside was a sandwich on thick bread, probably sourdough, the oblong shapes of two pears, and a fat jam thumbprint cookie wrapped lovingly inside a heart-printed paper towel. My heart was tugged back to the memory of making these cookies with mom and Bianca a few days ago, mashing our fingers playfully into the clumpy cookie dough before spooning jam into the indent. The whole house had smelled like burning cookies afterward, cause mom had left Bianca and I in charge of watching the first batch, and we had gotten sidetracked and the cookies had burned. After that, mom put us on dish duty, but instead of doing dishes, we ended up getting into a water fight, making the kitchen even more of a mess. We were then kicked out, and sentenced to the living room, and forced to have to wait until the cookies cooled to snag one. Back from my musing, I realized as I pulled each item out, this was only enough food for one. I had two mouths to feed.

Thorn's foot had begun to tap impatiently against a tree root, creating that annoying _tap-click _noise that could jar anyone's concentration. I reached out a hand, and poked his foot down with one of my slender fingers, pressing it into the ground so it would not tap again. It remained silent.

I split the paper towel around the cookie in two, and divvied up the food between the two sheets. I pushed half the food in Thorn's direction, and pulled the other half towards me. Thorn reached around the hand I still had clamped over his foot to pick up his pear, running his pointy hands over its skin in search of imperfection. I picked up the sandwich and upon further inspection, found it to be a simple, but homey, apple and cheese sandwich of crisp Fuji apple slices and cheddar cheese wrapped up with lettuce and mustard. It gave a satisfying _crunch _as I bit in.

_ "Got any more food? I'm still hungry"_

I looked over at Thorn with my mouth full of sandwich and was throughout surprised. His napkin was clear, nothing but a few crumbs and the stem of the pear left to tell the tale of food that was once there. Food that had been there TEN SECONDS AGO. Thorn picked his teeth with the end of a twig, red eyes peering through his half-closed lids nonchalantly.

I swallowed the big bite of sandwich down whole, the rough edges of the bread scratching the insides of my throat, and gaped at him. He shrugged his shoulders, and placed his hands in his lap patiently as he looked up at me. He face was vibrant green with health again, the scorched chlorophyll in his skin rejuvenated by the healing leaf mash.

I shifted my gaze down to my food. It looked awfully good; my natural greediness was welling up inside me, telling me to shove it all in my face and let him deal with it. I actually went as far as to taking another bite of my sandwich before stopping myself; I had two people to care for now. Being greedy would just screw mw over in the long run, so I'd just have to make some sacrifices. I wiped the mustard smears off my face with my napkin.

"Here..." I pushed the remainder of my food to him.

He picked up the thumb print cookie delicately fingering it lightly in his grasp. He looked between me and it for a second, poking at the still slightly squishy jelly filling, giving me an uncertain look. I smiled back at him, trying to ease his mind "You need to get your strength back after suffering from a burn for so long. I'll be fine, see..." I lifted my tank top and squeezed the small bits of baby fat still clinging stubbornly to my tummy "I'll be OK, no worries..."

Thorn looked from me to the cookie, to the food set out on the napkin, back to me. Finally he reached out to me, cookie firm in his hand. The red colored jam glistened in the sun from within its cookie-indent home. _"You need to eat something. These cookies obviously meant something to you, so you should get at least your half." _he pushed the cookie half into my fingers. They closed around it instinctively.

"Well… thank you…" I stammered, a bit surprised at his generosity. It seemed so unlike him, but hey, who was I to mess with the person who gave me food? I bit into the cookie. The cookie itself had a quiet lemon flavor underlining in it, the fiery Haban Berry jam within giving it a punch. I licked the jelly spots off my fingers, enjoying the subtle burn it left on my lips. We ate in the silence of the forest for a while, me savoring my cookie, Thorn devouring the rest of our lunch. For the most part, the Pokémon around us left us alone, and I contented myself to hearing them scurry and dash through the underbrush around us, finding the little clicks and cooing from the trees charming. But hey, anything was better than Thorn's irritating arguing.

When we were done, I leaned forward to clean the now dried leaf pulp from his face. Underneath was smooth healed skin that radiated health. I discarded the mash to the side, throwing it in a bush, the weight from the heavy crusted over leaves breaking through the frail, waifey leaves clinging it its long, thin branches. I yawned and sat back against the tree, eyes heavy with mental exhaustion.

"I'm gonna take a quick nap before we continue on, 'kay? Don't wander too far, or I'm leaving you to fend for yourself..." I opened a lazy eye to glace down at my Pokémon sitting in the grass.

He pushed himself up to a standing, eyeing me over his shoulder. _"Fine then. I guess I'm going to go for a walk..." _he turned and walked towards a dark shadowy outlet of trees across the clearing from us, his swaying tal the last I saw of him before he was totally enveloped by the forest.

My eyes gently closed and I drifted off listening to the sound of his tiny feet slapping against the dead grasses and twigs on the forest floor. My mind grew fuzzy and I dreamed of apples sprouting awkward golden eyes that went both ways at the same time, and few drunkenly on grey feathered wings. I did not wake when something was placed on my chest.

When I awoke, I found Thorn laying spread out in a patch of sunshine, tail raised high in the air to catch the elusive sunbeams. I rolled my head to the side to survey the area, when I heard a gentle squishy sound. I rose up on my elbows to see a beautiful flower placed squarely on my chest. It was a deep purple Lilly, its circular center soft and supple despite the dry world around it. Deep purple ruts ran down its interior, flanked by sharp skinny red lines and white patches. Its stem was short, and thick and green, providing evidence that it must have fallen from a tree somewhere. I looked up above me, and saw no flowers like it in the tree above nor any of the others around. I turned to look at Thorn's sprawled out form in the sunlight. I wrinkled my nose; _no way it's from him. The wind must've blown it over here, but I'm not complaining. _

I got up and nudged him conscious with one booted toe, hands busy with twining the stubby stem of the stunning flower into my ponytail. He raised his head lazily and gave a great yawn. He pushed himself up onto his legs, and began to trail me as I walked forward.

Together we walked to Accumula town, and I found myself drifting more towards him then before, almost like Thorn was a magnet. I protested inside, but for some reason, I let my body drift toward his; in response, his actually edged a bit towards me, almost like some unspoken mutual newfound respect had been forged between the two of us.

Again, I guess I'm not complaining.

* * *

**Thorn-"So Pokegirl's got the flu, so I'm in charge of this end segment. I'll keep it simple for the more illiterate readers: keep coming back, the story's not over. Goodnight"**

***Me slapping Thorn for his rudeness***


	7. Chapter 6: Accumula Town

Chapter 6: Accumula Town

I grasped the bridge of my nose, eyes furrowed, a small vein popping out near my temple. Thorn stood at my side, little vine-like arms crossed across his yellow chest, eyes hooded, nose wrinkled. Together we were standing in front of the Accumula town Pokémon center, its bright blue steel beams glinting sunbeams off in all directions. Why were we standing here, both plainly irritated? Because my two best friends were having the most _intelligent _of fights right now.

"You said we'd have a contest to see who could catch the most Pokémon on the way to Accumula town, and we both got two. Therefore, both of us win, and we get each other something to commemorate it!" Cheren said, trying to compromise with the stubborn blond across from him, but she was having none of it.

"We both caught two Pokémon, but I caught the stronger Pokémon, so I won! Buy me something!" Bianca pouted, flippy bangs flopping around. Oshawott clung close to her feet, eyes glaring up at Cheren. Its little mouth was drawn up in a sour wiggle, tail straight up on end.

"In case you forgot, we both caught the EXACT SAME Pokémon, on the EXACT SAME route, under the EXACT SAME conditions. Hell, we caught both of our Pokémon right next to each other, at the EXACT SAME time. Stronger is irrelevant! We both won!"

"Stupid, stubborn, prideful Chery!"

"Swallow your own pride, Be-be, since you want to play that way."

"Don't call me by that stupid nick-name you...big fat meany!"

"OK, that's just sad. All out of good insults? 'Big fat meany' is the best you can do?"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" my anger finally had bubbled over, and I was thoroughly sick of this; this had been going on for a good fifteen minutes, and that was enough. I reached forward, grabbing Cheren by the fluffy collar, as he was too tall for me, and Bianca by the hat. "I'll buy each of you something, please, just SHUT UP!" I dragged them inside the Pokemon center, Thorn on my heels, dodging my two prisoners' kicking legs.

"That sounds like a fair compromise, does it not, Be-be?"

Bianca struggled harder in my grasp, trying to reach Cheren "I said don't call me that!" She wailed out like a child, clawed hands outstretched to swipe at a smirking Cheren. He dodged her attacks easily, even entrapped in my grip. I dragged them up to the Pokemart counter and let go of each of them. Cheren settled back effortlessly onto his heels; Bianca tumbled to the floor, squishing Oshawott in the process.

"Cheren, quit being a Jackass. Bianca, quit being a child. I'm going to leave you two stranded in the middle of the forest with nothing but a nutcracker and a balloon animal for survival, if you don't calm the f*** down right now..." I ended in a low, growling voice, to get my point across. During my rant, Thorn had snaked his way up my torso, and was now perched on my shoulder, leering at my two supposed friends. Together, we guilted them into behaving.

Cheren looked nervously between Bianca and me, messing with the lapels of his jacket. Bianca kicked the ground sulkily, face hidden by her super-sized hat. They mumbled embarrassed 'I'm sorry's to each other, and the anger dissipated. I smiled relieved, and stepped up to the counter, giving them both a good flick to the forehead as punishment.

"Hello! Is there anything I can do for you?" an overly enthusiastic worker piped up over the counter, teeth as white as the spotless one he wore. He smiled one of those big 'This-is-what-I'm-really-paid-to-do-and- its-really-scary-if-I-look-in-the-mirror -while-doing-this' smiles, his immaculately white teeth blinding. I turned back to look at Bianca and Cheren raising my eyebrows.

"Well?"

Cheren rubbed his chin thoughtfully, eyes scanning over the list of available items for purchase. The list wasn't overly long, pertaining to just the basics: pokeballs, potions, mail, and a coupla other miscellaneous things. He had opened his mouth to respond, when Bianca burst forward.

"I want pokeballs, please!" she bounced up and down, eager for her prize, looking from me to the counter assistant, eyes wide with renewed excitement Within said green eyes, a hint of relief that she wasn't going to be abandoned in the middle of nowhere with nothing but Cheren and a balloon animal for company echoing in the background of her voice.

"I supposed pokeballs would be useful indeed. I'll take some as well, please." Cheren spoke once again in his annoyingly even tone of voice. All former sass and jack-A-tivity was gone, leaving polished and prim Cheren in its place.

"Ten pokeballs please"

"Rightey-o!" the counter assistant replied in his practiced overly-happy-and-helpful voice. He loaded up a cardboard box lid carefully with the shiny red and white spheres, before handing them over to me. The balls were packed together tightly in the confined cardboardy space, and barley moved as they were passed over to me. Thorn moved from my shoulder to my head as I shifted the weight of the box onto my shoulder to accommodate the pokeballs.

I dug out my pokeball-shaped wallet with one hand, balancing the pokeball box on one shoulder and Thorn on my head, and fed the worker the pay, zipping up the pouch with a satisfying _zzooipp_. With a sniff, I noticed how thin my wallet had grown lately, the few bills and coins still left in there flopping around in the empty space sadly_. I had been spending an awful lot of money on stamps lately..._I thought to myself guiltily. _And see where all that money's gone to, nowhere. _

Bianca and Cheren each reached into the box lid, coming up with five pokeballs each clasped in their grasp. Cheren packed his away methodically, probably organized by serial code, into his travel pouch; Bianca dropped them haphazardly into her lime green bag with little a second thought.

"Thanks!" we chorused, and made our way out of the Pokémon center and into the blinding light of the late afternoon.

"So, if we really abandoned in the middle of the woods with nothing but a nutcracker and a balloon animal, what would we use them for?" Bianca inquired as we walked in a cluster out the automated door and into the sunlight. Cheren thought for a moment before answering.

"Well the nutcracker would obviously be used to crack open nuts and tough-skinned berries and the like... I suppose we could use the balloon animal as a Poketoy to attract things to… you know... kill and eat... and cook. Heaven forbid we eat anything raw, and get salmonella!" Cheren swooned.

"Mmmm... roasted Trubbish...hahaha" Bianca giggled jovially. I laughed along; happy we all were on good terms again. They may drive me crazy, but I still liked it better when we all weren't hell-bent on killing each other.

"Perhaps I could use the nutcracker to break open your rock hard head instead..." Cheren grumbled, making us laugh harder. I opened my eyes to interject my own comment, when a gathering crowd caught my eye. People were slowly trickling over to the gathering group near a tight outcropping of a hill, all eyes turned to look at the unseen prospect on the hill. Tall people blocked our immediate view of the make-shift stage, heightening my curiosity further.

"Hey guys... let's go check out what's going on over there..." I broke away from our merry group and approached the gathering hoard. I poked a tall man in the back, and pushed my way past him and several other spectators. Thorn gripped my head more tightly as we pushed around the tightly knit crowd, almost losing his grip once or twice as we pushed our way to the front of the crowd were all the shorties go. I heard the yelps of Bianca and the soft _zhoosh_ sound of Cheren's jacket being brushed by something, and I knew they were right behind me. With one final push of a middle-aged lady's overly round backside, we were at the front of the pack, and we surveyed the scene in front of us.

The short hill and been entirely overtaken by grey-blue chain mail clad bodies, all pack together in tight lines. They looked like the poster children for the classic dragon-slaying knights from a child's bed-time story book, the interlocking chains of their uniforms glinting in the afternoon sun. Two flags hung proudly at either end of the knight hoard, a spikey 'P" in a deep electric blue stitched on the front, emblazoned over a monochrome black and white background, sectioned across the middle. They waved slightly in the soft breeze.

At the front of the group stood a tall man in a thick-looking cloak, long earthy green hair tumbling town his back. The cloak he was dressed in was spun in beautiful shades of gold and orange, with pale purple and blue spots stitched out to make strange eye-shaped forms on the shiny fabric's surface. The collar rose high on the man's neck, rounding out around the top to crest the top of his head. I scanned down his young-enough looking face, when my eyes caught on a steel eye patch-looking thing capped over where his right eye should have been. The steel rim of the patch glinted coldly in the sun, the bright red screen that made up the center of it glimmering like glass. I had the strange urge to poke it.

The tall green-haired man raised his hands to silence the quivering crowd, and there was a shrill blast of trumpets. I covered my ears during the sudden assault, the rest of the crowd mimicking me in the stance of ear trauma. The man lowered his hands, and the noise stopped.

"Accumula town! My name is Ghetesis, and I am here representing Team Plasma..." he let the words hang in the air as the crowd started to chatter nervously. Beside me Cheren grimaced.

"Team Plasma? Ooh... TP... their gonna halfta be careful about that..." he winced. I started to giggle, but was cut off by Ghetesis's booming voice.

"Today, Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to talk to you about Pokémon Liberation." he began to pace the stage, looking out over us "I'm sure most of you believe that we, humans, and Pokémon are partners that have come to live together because we need each other." He stopped in the center of the stage again. "However is that really the truth?"

The crowd around us began to chatter again, echoes of "Huh?" and "What?" and "What is that supposed to mean?" being shouted into the empty air around us. Cheren, Bianca, and I all looked from one to the other, eyes questioning.

"Have you ever considered that perhaps we humans... only assume this is the truth?" he drug out the sentence, causing more uneasiness within the crowd. "Pokémon are subject to the selfish commands to trainers... they get pushed around when they are our 'partners' at work... can anyone say with confidence that there is no truth in what I'm saying?"

'no...'s and 'I don't really know' filled the air as the crowd grew restless again.

"Ain't this a whole load of Milktank shit…" I mumbled to myself, thoroughly disgusted by what this loser was implying. _This is just unreal._

"Now ladies and Gentlemen, Pokémon are different from Human beings. They are living beings that contain unknown potential. They are living beings with which we humans have much to learn from... tell me... what is our responsibility toward these wonderful being called Pokémon?" Ghetesis inquired out into the confused cluster everyone had formed.

The crowd began to shake with uncertainty. "What could it be?" the bulbous bottomed woman I had pushed aside early mumbled to an older man behind her. A kid around my ankles echoed a shocked "Yikes" to a friend. "Liberation?" a man inquired from the back.

Ghetesis pointed towards the back, in the general vicinity of the man who had just spoken. "Yes! Exactly right! Liberation! We must liberate Pokémon! Then and only then, will Pokémon and humans be truly equals. Everyone, I end my words here today by imploring you to consider you relationship with your Pokémon. The correct way will proceed... and with that, thank you everyone. Have a good evening" Ghetesis snapped his fingers, and a few knights came forward to collect the flags. The rest crowed around Ghetesis, and once they were joined at the ends by the flag carrying grunts, the cluster of tightly packed bodies escorted him out into the shadows of a nearby building, disappearing into the shadows without a trace. It all happened so fast, in a blink of an eye, they were gone.

The crowd became less tight as people began to move around, and I was gifted with the movement of my elbows.

The young kid underneath me had produced a pokeball from a pocket somewhere and was now making a big show of going up to the hill. All eyes were on him as there was a click, a bright flash of light, and a happy Lillipup flashed onto the hill. It bounced up to its owner, intent on licking his face, when the boy put up his hands.

"They said I shouldn't keep you anymore because you're being forced to do things you don't want to do. They say I have to let you go now... so...goodbye..." the boy turned and ran from his Lillipup, dashing through the crowd and not looking back. The poor dejected Pokémon whined softly, and began to chase after its owner, but was stopped by the wall of legs that was the crowd. It cried out and ran back and forth, looking for any way to reach its owner, but no one moved. Many others were withdrawing their pokeballs from purses and pockets and were mumbling the same mantra the boy had just said. To my horror there were bright flashes of light all over the plaza, and more and more surprised Pokémon were appearing. Their owners walked off with few words in their directions, caught up in their own heads, telling themselves they were doing the right thing, while the Pokémon behind them protested they weren't.

"Hey... what's going on? Why are people releasing their Pokémon?" Bianca chirped like a nervous Pidove.

"What do they think they're doing?! Are they really just going to let their Pokémon go? Just like that? Just because some dress-wearing leafhead said it's our duty to them? What they hells the matter with them?!" Cheren exploded from his spot next to us to charge blindly off across the plaza to go yell at some people releasing their Pokémon. Bianca whipped her head from us to him before clamping a hand over her hat to go charging after him.

"Cheren, you dummy! Where are you going?" she wailed as she ran after him, probably going to keep him from killing anyone in his blind rage. Oshawott waddled after her as fast as his stumpy legs could take him, tripping over his tail several times in his panic.

Speaking of blind rage, I was experiencing some pretty strong stuff of my own right now. My fists tightened in anger, hot angry sweat gathering at the base of my neck. How dare they? How can they come forward and tell everyone to basically abandon their Pokémon just because we actually use Pokémon to help us sometimes? They had to be happy as they were, or they wouldn't be with us anymore, right? I just got my first Pokémon like hell was I going to give it up just like that.

I was so angry, I began stomping around in an angry circle, cursing Team Plasma left and right, howling out threats and ill-advised actions in my tirade.

Thorn had fallen off my head in my blind, rueful stomping fit, and was running around behind me, trying to calm me down with threats of his own. His arms snaked out a few times to try and stop my legs from charging onward, but I kicked him off and continued. I widened my angry parade to encompass more of the near-empty plaza, tossing my hair like a charging Bouffulant, bouncy ponytail...well... bouncing around my head, covering my face in sweaty hair. "And another thing..." I began, and more colorful language spilled over my lips to the outside world around me. I'm not really sure if anyone was listening, but it sure felt damn good to get it out.

With a violent twist in a random direction, I had stalked up to the last person still in my immediate area. I pointed a hard finger at his chest and began to spout "You've got to see the audacity of it all, right? This is just plain stupid. It's stupid! Team Plasma is stupid and the whole world is stupid, and if you don't agree with me (insert more unladylike language here)!"

There was the sudden realization I was talking to a complete stranger. I shrunk back embarrassed that my rave had led me to insult some random guy on the street. Thorn dug his leaf into my leg, leaving an angry red line. He hissed at me, telling me to behave. I started to retort something smart back to him when I was stunned silent by an outburst of noise.

The great bursting sound of silly laughter filled the air, and we turned to looked dumbfounded at the poor boy I'd just verbally assaulted. The laugh sounded a bit awkward and a touch rusty, like it hadn't been used in a while, but it was loud and happy all the same. His whole body shook with laughter, his head thrown back, causing his hat to go tumbling off his head. The wind ruffled through his hair and clothes, and I sucked in a sudden breath when one of his emerald green eyes opened to a slit to let out a stray tear. _His eyes..._

His eyes weren't the only captivating thing about him. He was gorgeous, and had wild tea green hair that blew around him in the soft wind; it was long and untamed, and settled around his hips when the wind wasn't blowing. He was tall and thin, with the easygoing stance of a hippie, shoulders relaxed, hands moving freely to cover his still gigging mouth. He wore a light filmy white collared top that moved freely around his thin frame, a tight three-quarters length black turtleneck peeking out from underneath his top. Tan pants, earthy green canvas slip-on sneakers, and the discarded black and white baseball cap completed his outfit, along with several gold bracelets a couple cosmic-looking-shaped-pendants on strings around his neck, and a golden cube attached to a chain around a belt loop. He finally stopped laughing and straightened up, hand brushing the back of his head, looking for his misplaced hat.

"I'm sorry, it's not polite to laugh like that in public..." the boy apologized, eyes closing in on his hat, and he swooped down low to retrieve it. He came back up to face me, hat now firmly on his head, containing the unruly hair beneath. I noticed how tall he was, now that he had risen to full height; he was at least six feet easily.

"I'm sure at least half those things I said are not polite to say in public, or really at all. Really, I'm the one who should be apologizing..." I grinned a toothily at him from under the brim of my hat, still a bit embarrassed I started yelling at him from out of nowhere. He chuckled a bit.

"My name's Mina, and this is Thorn..." I introduced myself after a moment, holding up Thorn's hand as a way of hello.

"I'm...N..." the green-haired boy said after a moment. He shuffled a bit, messing with his hair and clothes before continuing.

"Well, it's almost serendipitous that you should approach me when you did, as I was about to approach you, when you were done with your fit of course" my mouth bent inward to form a twisted line, making him smile again "Your Pokémon was saying... such interesting things. I could hear it from all the way across the plaza... would you mind if I spoke with him for a moment?" he cocked his head to the side, messy bangs tilting to cover his right eye.

My eyes widened in surprise at his request. I looked up from his canvas shoes to look at his face. His eyes were partially hidden by a mass of bangs flying every-which-way, but I could see an inquisitive polite smile on his face. His hands were in his pockets, but he seemed overly un-suspicious. What was the worst he could do?

"Sure, knock yourself out. If Thorn doesn't do that for ya, of course..."

I took a step to the right, letting Thorn approach N. Thorn padded forward on the tips of his toes, looking the extensively taller N up and down with constricted pupils and discerning red eyes. N bent down to one knee and began to address Thorn, talking in a low, fast voice. I couldn't make out a single syllable of what he was saying; though Thorn seemed to understand fine. I stood back, watching the two of them talked. I saw Thorn's mouth open for a few moments at a time to answer some unheard question a couple of times, but he was mostly silent.

N stopped abruptly to speak to me, gleaming eyes burning into mine "Can you hear him?"

"Huh?" I turned to look down at him? What did he mean? "No, I can't hear a thing..." of course I couldn't hear a thing, they were talking so low and so fast, I'm not sure anyone could understand them other than them.

The green headed teen's face fell a bit at my answer "Oh... I see... so you can't hear them either..."

N then resumed his conversation with Thorn, pressing further with his questioning it seemed, emerald eyes firm on Thorn. I realized Thorn's physique had grown more and more pinched as the conversation went on, tightening his fists, sinking his head down lower and lower into his collar, shoulders hunching over for far I thought he might fall over. Then the tension was released, as Thorn leapt forward, spitting some rage-filled spiel right into N's face, words lost within the speed and intensity of his movements.

My heart caught in my chest, and I started freaking out inside. N's eyes grew wide, further extending my hysteria. I stuck a hand in my mouth, and began to crunch on my nails nervously. _Oh no, he was probably telling him about the whole 'you don't own me, I own you' spiel I had given Thorn earlier today._ _Was that really just earlier today? Oh Archeus... oh god... I'm SCREWED._

I swept a foot around between Thorn and N and pushed Thorn back to my side in a single, graceful movement. "I-I don't think he likes me much... he's kinda a brat and..." I crossed my arms, and looked down at a disgruntled Thorn, refusing to look at the tall boy with the gemstone-like eyes in front of me. I dug the toe of my boot into the pale concrete plaza ground; I wasn't quite sure what N would say or do next. I mentally struck myself harshly upside the head; why the hell was I being so… _girly? This was just a weirdo I had met on the street…_

"It's quite surprising the things your partner had to say, but it's not really surprising that you can't hear his voice. Why, may I ask, are you traveling with this Pokémon?" N lifted his eyebrows up, making them disappear into the mass of green hair bursting out from under the bridge of his hat.

I slipped my hand into my bag and produced my Pokedex. I held it up high so he could see "I was asked to complete a Pokedex Research Project by Professor Juniper. I'm going on a journey, and Thorn is my partner. I'm going to catch tons of Pokémon and collect all the gym badges and then challenge the champion." I was looking right through his bangs and into his green eyes, my assigned task pouring out of my mouth like a waterfall. I retracted my hand holding the Pokedex, and placed it on my hip. I grinned smugly. Bet _he _was super jealous I was entrusted with a Pokedex; bet he totally wished he had one.

N however, had grown quite dark, tipping his head down, and spoke in a low, pained voice "The Pokedex, eh? So... you're going to confine many, many Pokémon to pokeballs for that wretched device then... its despicable." he spat out the word so forcefully it made me flinch. He started making weird gestures with his hands, almost like he was balancing the words he was saying against each other, weighting their pros and cons "I'm a trainer too, but I can't help wondering... are Pokémon really happy that way? Being shoved into a ball, and only allowed to come out when their trainer deems it OK. I don't believe that! Pokémon should be free to make their own choices, and be who they want to be, not who their trainer forces them to become..."

I wanted to burst out with some random comeback, but I stopped myself to think about what he was saying. It sounded eerily _familiar_ to what that loser leafhead was saying. I looked down at Thorn. He brimmed with life and self-confidence; he didn't hold back a single thought and went about as he pleased. He certainly didn't look like some poor, oppressed creature begging to be saved. All he seemed to want to be saved from was this conversation, his eyes spitting poison in N's direction. I clenched my fists and spoke to N directly.

"It's not always like that though... and I'll prove it to you. Battle me. You said you were a Pokémon trainer, so let's see what you got! I don't know much about all these deep things you're saying, but I know anything can be proven with a battle. So whattya say?" I didn't smile. I just stared at N. He lifted his head to stare back at me. Neither of us said anything; neither of us moved. It was like we were locked in a virtues vs. virtues stalemate, and the first one to blink was the loser.

He was hesitating. I knew it, and he knew it.

I spouted off again "Don't tell me you're scared of Thorn. He couldn't hurt a fly..." Thorn grinned deviously, and, when his eye caught sight of a wandering bug-type that had wandered too close, slammed it into the ground with his tail. When he moved his over-sized leafy tail, nothing was left but a sticky purple patch of goo and twitching legs on the once spotless plaza floor. "But I'm not sure about much else..." I grinned. N didn't do anything. I tried again "Or perhaps you're just a hypocrite going on about how people mistreat their Pokémon, and you happen to do the same thing. Is that the case?"

He snapped. N whipped out a pokeball so fast, it was nothing but a red and white spherical blur. "You will never accuse me of torturing Pokémon again, you hear? I don't like to resort to violence, but if it will prove a point to you, I am willing to do so." He spoke in an even tone, with hints of blind anger leaking through his composed facade.

I smiled again, a real smile this time. He seemed a bit taken back by my smile, but didn't say anything. I moved out of the way so Thorn could engage in the battle "Let's see what you're made of, Hippie Boy."

"Purrloin, let's go!" N threw his pokeball, and a spry young Purrloin appeared as the glow from the pokeball receded. It was the very picture of happiness and health, deep purple coat shiny and clean, eyes bright and full of energy. He extended his thin, needle-like claws and swiped the air.

_"I'm ready to serve, Lord N!"_

"Thorn you ready?"

_"I will show this cad no mercy..."_ Thorn hissed low and violently, full of fury and a need to tear innocent things apart.

"Purrloin, let's get ready! Hone claws!" Purrloin raked its claws over the concrete plaza floor, a terrible grating sound emanating like nails on a chalk board. Purrloin held up its newly sharpened claws so that Thorn could gaze upon their sharp-looking might. Purrloin hissed its own low, guttural hiss, making both me and Thorn flinch back.

"Thorn, it's raising its attack and accuracy, so let's lower its defense! Leer!" I directed. Thorn crossed his arms, and frosted his gaze over Purrloin, eyes glowing red and evil. Purrloin hunched back a bit, hissing defensively.

"Purrloin, put your claws to work! Scratch!" Purrloin sprang forward, up, and off its delicate white toes. Its lethal looking claws were outstretched on their way to sinking into Thorn. He leapt to the side, dodging the attack easily, turning on a dime to accommodate my next command.

"Use, Tackle!" Thorn crashed into Purrloin's side, sending them both toppling over to the dusty ground. Purrloin dug its way out from underneath Thorn and sprang back up, putting as much distance between himself and Thorn as he could.

Thorn shook himself off angrily, unhappy his play-thing had fled _"Don't you dare run away. I'm not done dismembering you yet..."_

Purrloin appeared by his side, seemingly from nowhere _"I'm not running away, I'm getting ready to turn you into a chop salad!"_

"Purrloin, use Scratch!" Down the claws came, raking violently over Thorn's nose, sending him falling to the ground. Three bright red and angry new scratches appeared on Thorn's cheek, standing out brilliantly against his leaf-green skin. His tail shook angrily and he hissed in Purrloin's face. A thin tendril of a vine began to poke through his yellow collar, and lashed out at astonishing speed, momentarily flattening Purrloin's face before sending it flying.

Purrloin hit the ground and went skidding, face being thoroughly rubbed into the ground. When he finally lifted his head again, Purrloin had a bright red mark in the shape of the tip of a vine blooming on his purple cheek. He shook himself, trying to shake off the birdies that were circling in front of his dizzy eyes.

"Thorn, you learned Vine Whip!" I exalted proudly at his turned form. Thorn took this moment to turn and look smugly over his shoulder at me, male pride emanating from every pore. I was already super pumped from the battle, but this was making it even more exciting!

"Purrloin, you can do it! Shake it off, and use Aerial Ace!"

I totally gasped out loud; this came as a surprise. Aerial Ace was a flying-type move, and was therefore super effective against Thorn, a grass-type. I had no idea a Purrloin could learn such a move.

Purrloin rose from the ground, and launched itself up and into the air, backed by swirling blue-grey light. It swept down and mowed Thorn over, sending him flying backwards. He was so surprised he made no move to block against the attack, or try to move out of the way. His face met the ground, and his little pointy nose became quite deeply buried in it, butt and leafy tail waving high in the air.

Purrloin settled to the ground in front of N, licking its paws free of the dirt it had accumulated during the battle. N held his hands up, palms forward, and lifted his shoulders in a shrugging motion "Ready to give yet?"

I pulled Thorn up and set him back on his feet, smacking him on the rump to get him walking forward. He glanced over his shoulder briefly at me, before turning and facing our enemies head on again.

"Of course not! Thorn, let's keep going!" I loved it, the aching desire to keep doing better, to rise above your opponent the want to do your best and have fun while doing it. I was enjoying this greatly.

N smirked a bit before issuing his next command, eyes glinting with a mild intrigue at my determination to prove him wrong. "Purrloin, use Aerial Ace again!" Purrloin burst forward again, eyes locked on Thorn's, daring him to make a move. Thorn just stared back, body hunched forward and ready.

"Thorn, use Vine Whip, and smack it down!" Just as Purrloin reached him, Thorn's vines whipped out and smacked Purrloin down into the dirt. It was done so forcefully that several chunks of earth flew upward upon Purrloin's contact with the ground, rocky bits flying everywhere.

Purrloin began to get up and shake itself, but was promptly stepped on by Thorn, pinning it to the ground. Purrloin looked up at Thorn's looming form, stilted eyes bright in fear.

_"Check and mate."_

"Thorn use Vine Whip" The thin green whips were brought down again, and it was all over. Purrloin had checked out.

He was knocked barely conscious to N's feet, body covered in red marks that indicated its beating. He looked up through pained eyes into N's emerald ones, whispering low _"I'm sorry, my Lord..."_

N reached down to pick up the defeated creature, and cradled it close in his arms "No, everything's fine. You did well..." He looked up from the defeated Pokémon in his arms to stare at Thorn and me. Thorn had rejoined me on our side of the battle field, and was leaning against my leg. My eyes were glued to the writhing creature in N's arms. _Had we really done that to that Pokémon? That was nothing like when Cheren and I battled..._ I began to feel sick to my stomach. I risked another look down at the battle triumphant Thorn; _was this the true power of Pokémon? _I was totally ruthless at times, but I'm not even sure if I was entirely comfortable with this.

"I'm glad I got to hear your Pokémon's voice again. He said such interesting things..." N's eyes were glued to my face. "I was surprised at such power he had and evident trust he had, considering you say he dislikes you."

My eyes flitted to Thorn's head for a moment. I returned my eyes to N's once again "Well, I'm glad we provided some insight for you. You were a lot of fun to battle." I smiled sincere, despite the tumult of guilt in my gut.

N gave a flicker of a smile before it was crushed by the weight of his next words "Pokémon are my friends. They will never be perfect beings while humans still control and hurt and corrupt them. I will change the world... because they are my friends..." and with that he turned and walked away, Purrloin still cradled in his arms.

I watched him go, a sudden sadness pulling at my chest. I thought we were becoming friends. Something about him was making me not want him to leave. Maybe it was just the guilt about handing his Purrloin's ass to him on a silver plate talking, but I still called out to his turned form.

"Wait, will I see you again? Are you traveling too? I want to battle again!" I waved after him, crying out loud above the little brick houses and businesses of the plaza. Thorn gave me a sharp look, but I ignored him; I was intent on getting N's attention.

He turned to gaze at us again, eyes full of suspicion "Do you mean that? Well, then perhaps we'll cross paths again..." with a fleeting glance, he turned and resumed walking away again, at a bit faster pace this time. Thorn crept close to my side as we watched him go, wild green hair tumbling and dancing about in the wind again. He dug his sharp tail into my leg again and I glared down at my two-foot partner.

_ "Do you actually like that guy? I don't trust him. Plus his hair is green. That's my thing. I think he looks like a girl. Or a cross-dresser. There's no way that's a guy. I mean check out the hair, its Rapunzel worthy."_

I sighed low and deep, watching N's green hair disappear in the crowds of the town. I addressed Thorn's first question, paying no mind to the insults towards the end of his statement, no matter how much I was actually laughing inside about the idea of a hippie in a princess dress. "No, I'm not sure what I think about him yet. But I don't trust him either. All that stuff he was spouting out sounding an awful lot like that garbage Ghetesis or whatever his name was, was saying. We'll just have to see what happens next..." a small smile snuck its way onto my lips "He seems like a good guy though..." _But I still roved your ass wrong, so there_. The guilt was receding into the corners of my conscience, allowing my mind to enjoy our victory; I believed this called for gloating. Lots and lots of gloating.

Thorn said nothing, just looked up at my face through my long side lengths of shiny brown hair. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye, and smirked. "He actually had you going for a moment there. Admit it, Aerial Ace took you buy surprise."

Thorn's tail stood on end, his eyes _wide "I will admit no such thing. I won and that's all that matters. That Purrloin had it coming, the sassy jerk. Boys, I swear..."_

"You sound like a girl"

_"I just don't like guys! They irk me. Just like you do when you act all high and mighty, just like you are now."_

"I bet so. Your ego's so big, no guy can enter within a ten-foot radius before you go into 'dismember-mode'..."

_"This is true, so what?"_

I giggled, and didn't reply, and we walked off to look for Cheren and Bianca. It was time to gloat!

* * *

**Hello again all!*sniffle* It's pokegirl, back with a new chapter. Oh and before I actually get to the real author's note, let me just appologize for Thorn's rudeness last time. He will never run an author's note again.**

**Thorn-"Never say never, my dear.."**

**Anywho... now that we've officially*cough*encountered N, I think its time I mentioned something important:**

**This is a pokemon WHITE fanfic. Yup, as in the game WHITE not Black. Yes, that means what you think it does. Mina might not be the good-at-heart-pursuer-of-truth heroine we might think she is. And N might not be the ultimate bad guy either.**

**The reason I decided to write a pokemon White fanfic was because a) it was the game I had and b) I see an awful lot of pokemon Black fanfics out there, but not a lot of pokemon White ones. I wanted to write about what the story would be like if the coin was flipped, and our hero wasn't chosen by the 'good' one. **

**I wanted to write about a hero who had an ideal and went on a journey to pursue that ideal, and only did things for the good of others because they simply got in the way. I wanted to write about the true human emotions that drove the legendary dragon-type pokemon of Unova to choose the trainers they did, not just going with 'it just happened'. So yes, things will be heavy at times. Yes, there is going to be some ugly things done and said, but that is the story I ultimately wanted to write. So, if this sounds not your style, please stop now, because the emotions and actions behind the dragon-types' choices will come back later on in the Pokegirl series.**

**So if this still sounds interesting to you, Thorn and I will be waiting for next time.**

**See you all soon.**


	8. Chapter 7: You make me miserable

Chapter 7: You Make Me Miserable

"Team Plasma is nothing but a group of misfits and delinquents with no life goals or souls. They will all rot in prison within a year, I can guarantee it, even If I have to hunt them down, and put them in myself." Cheren held up his fork as a symbol of him taking his vow, vending-machine mac 'n 'cheese croquet stuck on its tines, wiggling in time with his statement.

Bianca was giggling uncontrollably, her own tater-tots jumping around like fleas on her paper tray. I just shook my head.

We had rescued Cheren about an hour earlier, pulling him away from a rather large tattooed roughneck he was telling off about releasing his Pokémon. He was threatening to stage a gathering of his own, only this time it being a sermon on 'how you all are stupid for releasing your Pokémon because some leaf-head told you too' and 'how you will all rot in hell for abandoning your loyal Pokémon' and such. Needless to say, it would have gotten ugly. Cheren had already been the target of an aerial attack by a drum-kit's brass cymbal and a few old, dull ivory piano keys; yep, we pulled him out just in time before the riot started. But not without some casualties of our own; I had gotten the heels of my boots smashed in by some guy running after me, stepping on my heels, and ended up getting ran over and a couple times; I rubbed my bike-accident-sore knees, poking at the new Band-Aid I had to apply 'cause they started bleeding again. Cheren had gotten pushed around a bit, ending up almost losing his jacket a couple times, and had his wallet stolen in the entire mess, which he was just fuming about a few minutes ago; Bianca came out of the situation basically unscathed, save for the wad of pastel purple gum stuck to the bottom of her shoes heel that smelled faintly of grape.

We were now in the Pokémon Center cafeteria, eating a rather strange dinner of lunch-line fair and random fancy vending machine food.

Cheren continued on with his rant, and I turned my attention to messing with the plastic wrapping my crunchy peanut butter granola bars had come in. I flicked the crunchy brownish-orange plastic absentmindedly, mind many places but the cafeteria and the nutty-flavored food in front of me; I had only taken a few bites of one of the granola bars, relinquishing the other to a complaining Thorn. He was nibbling on it in the steel-blue plastic chair next to me, head barely visible above the table.

Thorn's red eyes were not glued to his crunchy treat though; they were glued to the pile of mashed potatoes on Bianca's tray, butter glistening and dripping seductively off the potato-y mountain. He narrowed his eyes, widened them, then revered back to normal, his gaze melting into the mashed potato mountain.

But the strangeness of his antics wasn't enough to keep me from thinking back to that weirdo encounter with the green-haired hippie…. N was his name. I furrowed my brow; all the stuff he was saying was exactly like TP, so did that mean he supported them? He was pretty damn vocal about his opinions when it came to Pokémon. I snorted; well like hell was one freak encounter with a wacky dude was gonna keep me from training and using my Pokémon as I pleased. I did look forward to the next time we met up though; the want to win and triumph squashed the egging fear that we would mess up a Pokémon just like we had Purrloin; all and all, he seemed to have his head on right, which was the total opposite of me, so I guess that just made him more interesting.

_And if he ends up being affiliated with TP, I can always call him out and let the mobs take care of him._

"Oh, Chery, you need to come down. They didn't DO anything. You were the one who blew things out of proportion!" Bianca poked him playfully with her spork. He didn't respond.

Intent on getting a rise out of him, she stabbed a tater tot, holding it up above her head, hand over her heart "I...Cheren what-ever-my-last-name-is, hereby vow to imprison TP for reasons that are better left unsaid and to eat vending-machine fried food everywhere for the safety of the children" she mocked in a bad old-English man voice. "Pip pip, cheerio! Expectopatronum! Supercalifragalisticexpealid osous!"

Cheren's retort was to hold up his croquet and smirk "And I... Bianca what-ever-the-author-will-give-you-as-a-last-name hereby decree that I will sleep in the broom cupboard tonight, since I was kicked out of the shared bedroom with Cheren and like to use an English man's voice that is extremely annoying and make incorrectly spelled Harry Potter references" in an equally bad English girl's voice, dripping with sarcasm, and a touch of half-chewed mac 'n 'cheese croquet.

"HEY! You made me sound like a miserable English orphan with an English-voice fetish!"

"Well, you made me sound like a TP-outlawing shmuck with insecurity issues that needs to save the word to feel good about himself"

"Well that does describe you perfectly"

"Well, Be-be, let me make some observations about you..."

I tuned out for the rest of the insult-fest, mind not awake enough to listen or care. It had been one hell of a first day, and having to deal with them fighting again was just the icing on the poo-covered cake. I crunched the remaining half-eaten granola bar and wrapper in my fist, tossing them into the table-side trashcan, not caring where they ended up. I picked up the mashed-potato creeping Thorn and hoisted him into my armpit, pinning his arms in and restricting all of his movement except tail. I placed him, head first, into my bag.

"Well it's getting late (extremely exaggerated yawn), I think I'm heading to bed. Don't kill each other, nite..." I sped off without hearing what they had to say in return. I heard a bit of a groan from my bag, and felt the sharp edge of a certain someone's leaf.

_"You could have handled that better. You are very socially awkward"_

"Better than being an antisocial disaster"

_"Funny. You do remember you never cleaned up the antisocial disaster's regurgitated matter at the bottom of your bag, correct?"_

_Ohhh, yeah_... I never look to see how bad Thorn had made a mess of my poor bag. I peered into it cautiously, almost like the puke would leap up and smack me in the face. Pushing aside the town map, and a few other things, I discovered the revolting material. Thorn, from his position on the back strap of my purse again, smirked; he was proud of this, the little monster.

"Dammit, Thorn, what did you eat? Is that... a claw? And a taco shell? And... oh I'm not even going to ask..." I covered up the pile of questionably edible material with a few spare recites still floating around in my bag. Thorn just smiled evilly.

"You are a miserable excuse for a partner"

We had reached our room on the second floor, a shiny brass-colored plaque mounted on the door proclaiming it to be room 16. I pulled the dull golden key I had gotten from the Nurse Joy at the front desk from my shredded pocket; silently exalting I hadn't dropped it into the contaminated bag. I slid the key into the lock; there was a creaky _shlickunh_ and the door was unlocked. I pushed open the door and wandered inside the dark room.

It was modestly furnished, with and ivory-colored wood bed with a spring mattress covered in white sheets and a few limp pillows; there was a tall, also ivory, lamp next to the bed on the left side, a deep brown table on the right, with an old school cord phone on top and a single knobbed drawer below. The room also had a short coffee table and an ivory love-seat on the wall directly opposite the bed; moonlight drifted lazily through the thin white curtains, its misty blue glow the only light in the room. There, on the side of the room with the couch, was also the slightly scratched door that led into the dark bathroom. The room smelled like Pine Sol and hipster-chick perfume.

I tossed my bag down next to the bed, sending Thorn tumbling to the ground with it. I plopped down on the bed, making it squeak sharply, and lifted a leg, taking my time to correctly unlace my boots. I heard the bed squeak again, and I felt a small form curl up on the bed next to my back. I kept untying my boots, clumsy fingers stumbling over the double-knots covering most of the front of my boots; I tied my shoes by double-knotting every-other space. This kept them from falling off, since they were two sizes too big from me, but these were the smallest size they came in so I dealt with it.

First there was the gentle nudging of my back with his leafy tail, then a leafy smack, then a full on push.

I stopped unlacing my shoes to glare over my shoulder through my hair at my Snivy behind me. He had popped open an eye and was still curled up, tail raised. He slapped my back again with his tail, a bit harder than the first time. I just looked at him. He slapped my again, aiming this time for the sensitive skin on the back of my arm. I yelped out and sprang up.

_"My bed."_

I gritted by teeth but left him alone. It had been too long, and too weird, of a day to deal with his self-centered-ness right now. I put my foot on the heel of my left boot, pulling it off and several of the laces with it. I didn't care if it messed them up; I just wanted to get away from him right now. After repeating with the right, I kicked them across the room, letting them slam into the coffee table. I padded across the room in my socks to the bathroom door.

"Do whatever you want, since you will regardless of what I say. I'll clean up your mess later, just don't do anything else." I pushed open the door, flicking on the bathroom light; Thorn really does make me miserable sometimes.

**OOOOOOOO**

Twenty minutes later, I emerged from the steamy bathroom, trailed by a few wisps of steam. The shower had been harsh and hot, pounding out the tenseness in my muscles and leaving me with a rosy pink glow from the heat. I ended up just standing under the running stream for a while, and my mind began to wander back to Purrloin; the sick nosiness of guilt nipped at me again, and I cringed in remembrance of how we almost drew its blood in the name of a stupid ego trip. The water had fluxed then, blasting me with a sharp blast of cold water, making me yelp and skitter out of the way; I took it was a sign it was time to stop lamenting like a convicted criminal and to get out. I grabbed the purple towel I had brought with from home, wrapping up my tangled mess of hair, and going out into the chilled room. Thorn was quiet on the bed, so I figured he was asleep. I braved my bag again, reaching in for the plastic bag of pajamas I had packed earlier.

Off with the towel, and a few moments later I had slipped on the yellow checkerboard fleece PJ pants, and gotten the matching flannel shirt halfway buttoned up when a corner of paper sticking up from my bag caught my eye. Bending down I discovered two more slightly bulging rectangle pieces of paper; I lifted them out gently, using my thumb and pointer finger to lift them like they were contaminated. When they were completely visible in the blue moonlight, I let out a deep sigh.

In my hands, I held three letters. The corners of the envelopes were slightly bent from travel, but they were in good condition overall, as they were only written two days ago. I slid down to the floor, sitting on my knees, and flipped through the letters; their corners were decorated with stamps. All the money going to stamps… just for these three letters and all the others I had written within the past month.

Two of the three letters were addressed to Rekikio Hikomaki, the name written out in a sparkly light blue gel pen. The last was addressed to my brother, Gavin, name written out in solid and desperate in thick black ink, the sharpie marker bleeding through the envelope to stain the crookedly written letter sealed inside. I ran my hand over the writing on the envelopes, feeling insanely stupid.

I chuckled darkly as the line from that song about being miserable ran through my head _"And I wrote two hundred letters I will never send..."_ the rest of the song continued to run cheesily through my head.

While I hadn't written that many letters, for the better part of two and a half years, I had been mindlessly writing and sending letters in hope of reaching at least one of my lost friends. Every letter I had ever sent had come back though, a black stamp over the front proclaiming 'WRONG ADDRESS' or 'INVALID ADDRESS". The three letters I held in my hands now were just likely additions to the pile of letters I will probably never send; _you have to give up eventually_ a voice bitterly echoed in my back of my head. I threw the letters down spitefully and got up to go to bed, knocking over the rest of my purse.

I cursed at my clumsiness, and sat up, the only injury that of a broken nail. _Dammit, I was trying to grow that one out… _I thought sourly to myself while staring at my stubby broken nails before my eyes fluttered to what was resting up against my heel. At my feet was my pokeball wallet, glossy in the moonlight drifting in from the half-shaded window. Suddenly sentimental, I unzipped the top again and withdrew the three pictures I always kept with me from within.

The oldest one was me and Gavin at my 10th birthday party, the edges faded and dirty despite my best efforts to keep it clean. He was sixteen at the time, as there are six years between us. Mom had made me dress up as a frilly princess, itty bitty high heels, pink princess hair and all, which I had hated; I had been sulking over a piece of pink and blue-frosted chocolate birthday cake when Gavin had swept into the party, dressed as a shiny knight, and picked me up like a princess and carried me around like that for a while. The picture had been taken right after he had picked me up, Gavin smiling mischievously from under his helmet, my face a look of complete surprise with bits of frosting smeared in the corners of my mouth. I flipped the picture over to see the next one. I told myself not to start snotting, the tell-tale sign I was about to start wailing. I was a very messy crier.

The next was one of me and Rekikio in her backyard three years ago, trying to climb the giant oak tree that was in the middle of it. We were both holding on with our legs wrapped around very low hanging tree branches, hanging on for dear life though we were only fifteen feet off the ground. We had been trying to see a Mandibuzz nest perched at the very top of the tree, but only got a few branches up before flipping out and bailing; Rekikio had actually let go of the branch she was on, and fell to the ground, though she only got a few scrapes. The picture had been taken by her father, who had always joked he was going to caption it with "Hang in there, baby!" like those motivational posters, much to out eternal embarrassment. I flipped over the photo, briefly glancing at the date on the back as my gaze roamed to the last one, feeling the squishy feelings rise up inside me again.

The last picture was a picture of me and Gavin in a mall photo booth when I was fourteen, and he was nineteen. We were making goofy faces with our fingers up each other's noses, Gavin's Unfezeant in the background in mid squawk. We had put one of those large doughy pretzels from the mall food-court around the camera to give the picture a funny border without having to pay extra for one. Up close, the bits of salt stuck to the pretzel kinda looked like shrunken, crystallized golf balls. I thought of how Gavin's Unfezeant and Thorn would both certainly hate each other, both being alpha's in their own minds. I wanted to smile, I wanted to chuckle at the thought of them cat-fighting over the title of 'undisputed alpha' but I couldn't summon the happiness needed for it.

I set the pictures down on top of my wallet. I could barely see anymore, my eyes having filled with thin salty tears threatening to run over my cheeks. I felt miserable, the memories of the past making me feel like I needed to curl up in a ball and cry miserably to myself for a few days. Before any tears could fall, I stuck my face into one of the sleeves of my top, rubbing my face in it until it was rubbed red and dry. I got up and climbed into bed.

I heard Thorn snuffle irritated a bit, but pushed him out of the center and up onto a cold pillow. "Deal with it."

We slept.

* * *

**AAAAAAHHHH! I'm so happy! The story's been up less than a month, and I've already got 600 views! Thank you sooooo much, all of you! Please keep reading and reviewing!**

**ER... hi everyone... Pokegirl Chillin' with Thorn again...**

**So this chapter is really just a filler... I had some serious writer's block, and I didn't really want to charge right into Striaton City, so... viola this Chapter was born.**

**Sorry bout the last chappie being REALLY long(as well as this one) I had tons to say, plus I wanted to do a good spot light on N**

**Thorn-"I hate him already..."**

**You've always hated him**

**Thorn-"..."**

**At least we know your not gay, so next time...**

**Thorn-"I don't think I love you anymore"**

**NEXT TIME, as I was trying to finish before being interrupted by a lettuce wrap with anger issues, we hit Striaton city, Thorn demonstrates how to use a pokeball, and we met some floating pink peeps**

**ONWARD!**

**... its true... I gave no one lastnames X(**


	9. Chapter 8: The Dream and the Visitor

Chapter 8: The Dream and the Visitor

The sun's bright yellow rays began to drift through my sleep clogged eyes. I reached up to rub my eyes with my sleeve, smushing my face around in its flannel-ness until the sleep had been rubbed away. I opened one eye and held back an animalistic hiss when the blinding morning sun hit my face, sending me flying back under the safety of the covers. I opened my other eye, squinting into the pillow shading it from the assaulting sun; my mind threatened to go back into sleep-mode, but something caught me off-guard with a sharpened persistence. I had a headache. A really bad one. My head throbbed and pounded, like my brain was desperate to throw itself out of my skull and onto the floor just to rid itself of the pain. I clutched at me head, the ache making me uneasy. I felt this exact same way last night… right when _that thing _showed up. Through the brain-frying pain, I forced myself to think back wandered to what may/may not have happen last night:

_I was asleep. My mind was foggy with dreams; I was lying on my side, the sheets cool on my exposed belly. ____I wasn't dreaming at first but then suddenly... dreams._

_I was stuck, mid-dream, in a field I had never seen before. The grass was a vibrant, healthy green, and the field was surrounded on all sides by a twisted green wrought iron fence ____that reminded me of vines on banyan trees_ . There ___were no banyan trees or any other trees for that matter_. Around my feet, pretty purple-red roses danced around my ankles like elegant, spiked twirling ballerinas. There was a voice I could hear just barley over the wind if I focused; it wasn't loud enough I could define what it was saying; it was just audible enough to keep me aware that it was here. It sounded familiar, like petals falling off a flower, or the ripples of water after a stone was thrown in a pond. _I thought it sounded soothing, like a mother's voice should be._

_I walked forward, the dreamy fog surrounding me keeping my eyes from knowing where I was going, yet my feet seemed to know where they were taking me; they pulled me further into the tree-less dream field. __Grass tickled teasingly at my toes and bits of pollen drifted through the air like miniaturized party balloons. I sneezed as a clump of them stuck to my face._

_As I approached the center of the field, exotic-looking white flowers and sun-colored flowers radiating a gentle warmth joined the purple roses tickling my toes on the ground.____The flowers had started to grow so thick, I was losing sight of my foot each time I put it down in their lazing masses. This made me a little nervous; I was barefoot on top of that, and stepping on a thorn wasn't on my list of 'things to do in a freaky dream because you might be under the influence of extreme drowsiness or maybe even drugs'. I stopped my grumbling as I realized where I was at; _ I had reached the dead center of the small field, and I turned to gaze at the entire expanse of it all. My sweeping gaze stopped when my eyes finally hit the center of the field: a giant red rose bud the size of a Hydreigon was gleaming in some unseen light source, standing on a stem as thick as my body. The petals seemed to glow from within, seeming almost translucent. There were several lethal looking thorns protruding grotesquely from the thick electric green base.

_The whole thing looked... unearthly. _

_I was reaching out to touch the waxy petals of the closed bud, when something started to pull me back into the real world. Through my left eye, the real world was forming again in blurry shapes; the right still beheld the sight of the gargantuan rose bud. __My head started to swim and pound, like something was trying to poke and prod its way into my head, and was totally willing to shove out anything it needed to in order to achieve control. I tried to grab my head, but for some reason I couldn't find it with my fingers._

_I felt something tugging at me. Through my muddled vision, Thorn's incorrectly shaped head swam into view, his huge red eyes waving in front of my sleepy vision. His mouth was curled up in a hiss. He was trying to tell me something. __My head still hurt; I couldn't understand what he was saying; it sounded like Turkish to me._

"Mina! Wake up! I think something's in here!"

_I waved away his sleep-disrupting hissing. The pain in my cranium wasn't allowing me to focus on anything except the dream scape. I let it control me. I began to focus again on the scene with the rose bud, hands still reaching out to touch its petals. I had to touch it; I was certain it would take this pain away; my head was full on burning now, all my coherent thoughts burning away with it. I felt Thorn backhand me across the face, jolting me back like a cold bucket of water._

"I said wake up!"

_I grumbled out some sort of a retort, as Thorn had fallen silent. It was better with him quiet; the burning pain wasn't quite nearly as bad then. He whipped his head around, making his leafy collar fly around with him. I felt his hands again, only this time they were clinging to my pajama shirt, hands tight and anxious with fear. My heart seized in terror, the fear in Thorn's actions making me fearful too; fear overruled pain, and the ache dulled to the background of my mind, the raging fear taking its place. I was hardly ever scared; why was I scared?_

_I began to say something, but I realized the scene with the rose bud in my right eye had begun to grow dark. The flowers at my feet began to wrap around my ankles, restricting my dream movement. Another shot of pain jolted through me, this time spiking my whole body with agony instead of just my head. Oh, the pain… it burned, it froze, it paralyzed me. I hated it. I hated it so much. Blobby shadows began to seep through the ground in the dream, coming up to form strange figures that looked almost like dancing Pokémon, only they didn't seem like the happy woodland creature types: there was a spiky, dinosaur-looking one with long, gruesome claws and plates running down its back like shingles on a roof; and a long, thin, dragon-like one with tiny arms and a long tail, ending in a rudder-like shape; and then there was another one that seemed darker than them all, a spiky figure that had the head similar to that of a Purrloin, only it's body was much more humanoid, and skeletal. Inside its rib cage, something pulsed like a heart, but there was nothing there. Only a throbbing darkness._

_I felt Thorn's grip tighten on me again in the real world, pulling my focus to him. My drifting eye caught the sight of a rounded object suspended like it was on a string above our bed, its gleaming dime shape eyes staring into us. It seemed to be letting off some sort of mist: mist deep and dark and gave you a deep falling feeling in your stomach. The pain in my head skyrocketed, and I couldn't see straight anymore. Thorn's bulbous head swam into view, forcing me to focus on something other than the pain._

"I'm scared..."

_I gritted my teeth at Thorn as the darkened dream scene began to crumble and a strange black clawed hand began to reach out for me. I was terrified, the pain too much to handle. I submitted to being dragged under._

_I croaked "I'm scared too"_

_I fell into a dark void where nothing made a sound._

The strange events of the night played back through my head. The cranial discomfort was starting to wane, giving me back full ability to be seriously weirded out. My knees itched from being uncovered all night. I had just crawled into bed last night after getting emotionally handed-to, and I had forgotten to bandage up my scraped knees. I sighed; I didn't care enough to mess with them right now. I rolled over from my side onto my back to get a better look at the ceiling. The huge oak tree right outside my window was casting swirly shadows on the walls and roof. I twisted my body around, putting my hands behind my head.

Something was tugging on me.

I looked down and saw Thorn's curled green form on my stomach. The first thing my mind registered was that I hadn't finished buttoning up my shirt last night, leaving my belly and upper chest exposed; I blushed, even though Thorn couldn't see.

The second thing I noticed was Thorn had latched on to an unbuttoned button on my shirt with one of his vine-like hands. He must have been curled up right next to me, and so when I rolled over onto my back, he came with me. I just stared at his sleeping form on my bare stomach.

It was silently awkward for a few minutes.

"OK, times up." I picked him up by the leafy tail with my thumb and forefinger, and off the bed he went. He landed with a crash and the sound of a sharp hissing. I scratched at my nose with a finger.

He awoke instantly on impact, landing splayed out on the floor like a rug. I threw my feet over the side of the bed and walked over to my bag, which was still lying on the ground where I had spilled it last night after tripping over it. I rifled through it for the box of Hello Delcatty Band-Aids I had tossed in at last second yesterday. I tug out the tattered box and a tube of Neosporin and went to work on the crusty pink wounds.

Thorn lifted himself up to sit, and I could feel his cold red eyes sharp as steel on my back. _"What the hell was that for?"_

Without looking at him, I said over my shoulder "I didn't give you permission to sleep with me, much less on me." With a sharp rip, I pulled a pink and purple bandage out of its slim wax paper packaging and set it on my thigh. It had a pastel pink picture of Hello Delcatty dressed up in a hula skirt and lei on it; I grimaced at it. Gavin had bought these for me as a joke on April Fool's Day two years ago, knowing I hate the color pink and girly Pokémon like Delcatty. It was funny then, but now it just annoyed me.

_"It was cold. Your stomach was both soft and warm. You have the special balance of being soft and not being fat. It must be the baby fat."_

"Lovely, I've been reduced to a heated blanket now by my two-foot tall diva of a Snivy." I slapped a few repulsively girly Band-Aids over my thoroughly Neosporin-ed knees and pushed myself to a standing. I lifted up my bag upside down, sending the few remaining items inside tumbling to the floor. The crusted over goo inside stayed firmly in place however. I grimaced at it.

I grumbled; I realized I didn't really want to deal with this fuster-cluck right now on an empty stomach. I riffled through all the discarded material on the floor, picking up my extra set of clothes. I shed my pajama top, throwing it over Thorn's head to keep him disorientated long enough to change. I tossed the pants over him for good measure.

When I was done lacing up my boots, and Thorn was done wrestling with my pajamas, I slapped on my cap and opened the door, slipping the key in my pocket.

"Breakfast time, cretin."

_"Goody, I need more ammunition for the next time you make me throw up in your bag. Onward to food, owner!"_

_Man, I wish I could slap you..._

**OOOOOOOO**

Down stairs, Bianca was waiting for me at the front desk; she was holding a peculiar grey box-shaped device. I hopped over the banister separating the stair case from the main lobby. The Nurse Joy on duty just shot me a dangerous look, but said nothing.

When I got up in front of Bianca, my first question was "Where's Cheren?"

She gestured to the device in her hands. "I think he left. When I came down, the pink nurse lady with the egg-shaped loops in her hair gave it to me. I haven't listened to it yet."

"Well what are we waiting for? I wanna know where I can hunt down Cheren next at."

She pushed the button on now what I could see was an old school tape player. There was a dull black tape in its teeth inside the machine; there was the _click_ of the button going down, then the _shing _from the machine, and then we heard Cheren's prim and proper voice on the recording:

"Mina, Bianca. Since you are listening to this, I, Cheren (insert last name here), have taken off to" there was a sudden voice change to like that of an automated robot that calls you by machine, and tells you your library book is overdue "Striaton city" the voice reverted back to Cheren's "in order to partake in the fore-assigned dated battle with the" the robotic voice was back "Striaton City gym leaders." The voice was Cheren's again "Doing the same thing would be advised of you as well; have a pleasant day, and if you have any questions or comments please fill out the attached form to this message." the tape cut out for a few moments before a few more voices leaked through "Tepig, don't do that! Bad pig! Don't chew on that... don't eat the tape... no...no...NOOOOO!" the tape finished and ended with a click. A packet of papers, apparently the comment forms, fluttered down from the back of the tape player, landing softly on the polish white-tiled floor.

There was a nanosecond of silence before we burst out laughing. Bianca toppled to the ground, holding her stomach, tears dribbling out of her eyes. I leaned back against the front desk, sending the service bell on top and a mini flower pot tumbling over the side of the desk; the bell hit the ground with a dent-inducing _CLINNGGG!_

"Oh my god, he actually made one of those automated messages!" Bianca wheezed.

"He sounded like the robot that calls you from the police office to tell you the fines have been doubled, and you face juvie and community service at the senior citizen roller derby " I cackled out, holding my quivering sides. My chest bucks forward as another burst of laughter pushed up through my lungs.

"HEY! You may be renting a room here and all, but we have rules! If you're quite done destroying the front desk and making a fool of yourselves, PLEASE LEAVE! OR GO SOMEPLACE ELSE!"

Bianca and I stopped laughing immediately. We turned to look at the poor nurse with behind the counter with her hair standing up on end. She was hunched over the desk, right in our faces. I wouldn't have to be a genius to know she was pissed.

She suddenly shrunk back, obviously a bit embarrassed at her outburst. "Um... if that's alright by you..." she chirped out like startled bird.(or a certain yellow Pegasus)

Bianca and I said nothing. We were trying our best to keep straight faces, but I think mine was coming out more like a bad poker face. We turned on heel immediately, and headed for the dining room, Thorn at my heels snickering all the way. Just when the nurse was out of earshot, we resumed laughing our asses off.

**OOOOOOOO**

Breakfast was your standard breakfast buffet: toast, bagels oatmeal, cereal, fruit, and juice. I grabbed a tray and a bowl, filling it up to the brim with Leppa Berry granola and Moomoo milk. I stared longingly at the empty bins that had held donuts, but now all that was left were the crumbs of the cakes, smears of chocolate frosting, and a few stray pastel-colored star sprinkles. I seethed in silent envy as a chubby little girl was wrapping up the last vanilla-crème donut in wax paper with her grubby fingers; I threw a strawberry at her as she walked away mowing down on the deep-fried, cakey deliciousness. She didn't even turn around, but her back fat jiggled a bit. I guess that was enough of a revenge for now.

_Eh, I should go on a diet anyway. _Thorn's comment about my baby fat floated leisurely through my head again, prickling me all up again. I had the notion to 'forget' his breakfast, and make him use his 'photosynthesis' to feed his annoying self.

The better part of me told me to stop being a child, and I complied, making my way to the fresh cut fruit on the other side of the bar. I picked up an apple for Thorn in a white paper napkin as I made my way to the silverware station, and a pair of plastic tongs next to the bagel compartment caught my eye.

I looked around to make sure no one was looking, then picked up the tongs and slipped them in my back pocket. They had given me an idea.

I grabbed a spoon and walked away.

**OOOOOOOO**

_"Why do I have to be here?"_

We were in the Pokecenter laundry room standing over the running washing machine, soapy bubbles flinging occasionally out of the spinning vortex. I pointed at my bag lying on the plastic-topped counter a few feet away with a spiteful finger, the goopy mess of Thorn's stomach acting as exhibit 'A' to my testimony for his rightful torture.

"Your here because I don't trust you to be alone in the room. Plus this was your fault anyway, so you should help me cleanup"

Thorn grumbled but said nothing else.

I was dressed in a large plastic apron that covered my entire front and dripped down past my toes into a puddle on the floor. Thorn was wearing a deconstructed latex glove, split at the sides with two fingers tied around his back. I had swiped our gear from the kitchen staff, as I wanted to be ready for The Cleaning. (Doesn't that sound like a soap opera when its capitalized like that?) I gave him a smirk at how lame he looked, but turned my attention to getting my prize (other than getting to see Thorn looking like a miniature maid) out of my bag.

Taking the plastic tongs, I lifted the soiled bag, inside out, over the running washing machine, the crusted over matter shining grossly in the florescent lights.

_Hasta la vista, gooey bastard._

"Thorn, tip most of that box in." I gestured with my head to the grey-green soap box sitting next to Thorn. He knocked it over with this tail, sending the powdery soap into the vortex, making it send out slightly wet clumps of powered soap. He sneezed when a clump was flung directly up his nose, getting an evil giggle from me. He glared at me, dipping his tail in the washing machine spray and retaliating at me by swamping me with a wave of frothy water.

I held back the involuntary urge to throw him into the washing machine as well and walking away without another glace; I had a better torture come to mind instead. I tossed the bag in, watching its dusty rose form swirl around in the vortex like woodland sprite high on speed, while I grabbed the steel wool brushes I had nabbed from an unsuspecting janitor as he cleaned out a room. I handed one of the brushed to Thorn. He gave me a startled look.

"You know what we have to do."

Thorn cussed, very, very loudly.

**OOOOOOOOO**

I sighed very loudly, now both my hands and my knees both unbearably sore now, putting me into an absolutely horrid mood.

After being thoroughly scrubbed, both my bag, and me, had been restored to pre-puke glory. My skin prickled with stinging pain from being rubbed raw by the steel wool. Thorn also was rubbed up quite a bit, having a rather large red patch on him on a rather awkwardly uncomfortable place. I wasn't _that _rough on him, I promise. Most of it was his fault anyway.

I had just finished ditching our cleanup supplies, stowing the soaked aprons and gloves in a random custodial closet that I found unlocked, and returning the steel wool and laundry soap to the house keepers; I had tried to sneak up on her, but she must've had like Pokémon-worthy hearing an whipped around to find me trying to wedge the stolen matter between a bucket and a canister of powered cleaner. She yelled at me then, speaking some crazy language I was pretty sure wasn't English, or it was just some really wacky slang. I had totally sprinted away then, hearing the words _osztriga _and _cica gyilkosság_ yelled after me. I started running faster, just in case she was threatening me with a gun or some mop-kung-fu or something.

We trekked through the Pokecenter Lobby, on our way out to head to Route 2. Bianca had headed out after breakfast, and was probably already half way there. My knees protested the two-hour walk there, and I apologized to them sincerely; I don't think they believed me.

On the way through, I happened to notice one of those word of the day calendars hanging up behind the main desk; it hadn't been changed yet from yesterday, and I scoffed a bit at its proclaimed word of the day yesterday: Misery-wretchedness of condition or circumstances.

_Well, howdy-frigging-do. Didn't that seemed to fit the damn bill just right?_

"What do you mean we had something break on last night?! I can't tell my guests that!" A shrill voice emanated from behind the desk.

I whipped my head around to stare at the back of the Nurse Joy who had yelled at us eariler's head. She was yelling into a white cordless phone, partially hidden from view by a wall that probably led into an office of some sort. "Did you find out what it is? Or catch it?"

This information sent a chill down my spine. I had seen something weird above our bed last night, but then again... it could have been sleep just playing with me. Or the head trauma. I still felt the dull ache of the pain, but I dismissed it as being dehydrated or something, as I had just spent a good forty-five minutes messing with bleach and other cleaning toxics. But then again, Thorn had seemed scared too, and he didn't strike me as the type to cower much. _But he could just really be a wuss…_ the rational part of me tried to convince my run-away mind, but I pushed it aside. He was still holding onto me this morning from last night. It couldn't have been all one freaky dream.

If it wasn't, and if there really was something there, I never ran away from a challenge. A spiritual sneak would only be the latest of the goons I've overcome. I wasn't freaked out easily, and I planned to prove it.

Nurse Joy didn't say anything else; she just hung up the phone.

Before she could notice us, I picked up Thorn and slipped out the door and into the sun. We made our way to Route 2.

**OOOOOOO**

The journey to Striaton City was a long and aggravating one, the sun beating down on us, and Thorn, keeping the tradition of yesterday's Word of the Day, making it absolutely miserable. I had two hours to whine and grown to myself while Thorn tried his best to annoy the hell out of me while throwing in random beauty tips to deal with my apparently 'dusty as a tumbleweed complexion that would make for better sleeping material if I applied yadda-yah stuff to it.'

My mind wasn't on Thorn's insults and complaints much though; they were on the dream and the overall strangeness of it. Crazy thing was that my mind wouldn't even focus on that much either; it stubbornly kept dragging back the memory of N to the forefront of my brain. I furrowed my brows, dodging a pinecone Thorn had hocked at me from over his shoulder. That kid's conviction had been unreal. He wasn't in the least bit selfish at all, making me feel a tendril of guilt wrapping itself around my conscience. His words had stung, seeping deep into me, cutting right through my high from winning. His words stung like under steeped peppermint tea; and I wasn't sure if I could deal with the reality of it.

* * *

**Woo.. another chapter done. Pokegirl, but not with Thorn today...**

**Mina-"I'm with her today!"**

**Thorn's sulking in the corner**

**Mina-"You reveled how much of a wuss he could be this chapter" *giggle***

**So anyways... this was NOT a filler chapter, though it seems a bit scatter-brained. I like talking about Mina and Gavin... fluffy feels :D  
**

**Mina-"It was the dream what was important. Its gonna come back and be important in the series. Or actually pretty soon..."**

**Yup it is ^.^ So what do you all think the dream meant?**

**Coming**** up(for sure this time) we hit Striaton city, Thorn demonstrates how to use a pokeball, and we see A LOT of floating pink peeps**

**Mina-"Or will we encounter them sooner?"**

**Or did we already?**


	10. Chapter 9: Pink Floaty Things

Chapter 9: Pink Floaty Things...Pink Floaty Things Everywhere

Finally. Striaton City.

Thorn had made the journey here hell, and I was still exhausted from last night's episode, adding up for a miserable time. I shook a few leaves from my hair. Thorn munched on a berry he gotten from a bush that was miraculously still alive, tapping his foot impatiently on the hot concrete of the city.

I exhaled a great breath and took in the city. It was made up mostly of brownstone buildings, two stories or more. I could see a Pokémon center a bit always towards what seemed to be the center of the city, its bright blue pokeball logo shining in the distance above a small outcropping of dying decorative trees in a planter. A few people were milling around the city plaza, talking with one another and what not, but the rest of the city seemed pretty quiet, save for a cafe across the plaza.

The wrap-around porch outside was filled to the brim with people and Pokémon, noise emanating from it able to be heard from where I was standing several yards away. Fancily dressed waiters dodged in and out of each other's' way, swirling around the room with precision as they checked on their tables.

_Ahhhh, foooooood…. _My mind whispered to me like a sweet seductress… dressed in edible things. I could catch the tantalizing smells of fresh herbs and fancy cheeses coming from the café, and I was momentarily blindsided by hunger nipping at my stomach, my agitated brain egging it on until it seemed impossible to ignore.

I shook myself of my thoughts of food; what I wanted more than anything right now was a nap, and that required a place to sleep, and like hell was I squatting in a bush for the night. I grumbled to myself, exhaustion an excellent fuel for getting things done_. I figure I could grab a bite to eat over there in a bit... but first I better..._

_ ...get dragged away by a distressed blond?_

Bianca had appeared from literally nowhere, I mean seriously, I think she jumped from like a bush or something, and wrapped her hand around my wrist, and was now yanking me to some unknown destination. Thorn dropped his berry in surprise, launching himself off the ground and onto my shoulder, digging his little claws in and making me wince despite trying to form words to ask what the hell was going on.

"Bianca! What's going on?" I struggled to release myself from her grasp, but she held on tighter as she turned around, fear in her eyes.

"Cheren's in trouble! We have to hurry!"

I push ahead of her, changing my fast staggering to a quick jog. I pulled her behind me, hearing her shoes hit the ground harder as she picked up speed.

"What are we waiting for then?! Let's go! Wait, where are we going?"

**OOOOOOO**

Bianca led us up to a thick two story building with little red flags flying in the wind on the stones next to the door. The building seemed to be carved out if stone, with intricate sweeps and curves cut along the top of the main door and windows. Within the carving, swirls of light blue had been painted in, giving it an old-mausoleum look, only not as creepy.

Bianca pulled me up to a large-paned glass window, and pointed to something inside. I peered in cautiously; almost afraid of what might be inside. Thorn wriggled his way up onto the top of my hat, peering inside with me.

Cheren was standing in front of a chalk board, and was in the middle of writing what seemed to be an extremely complex problem of some sort. He had changed chalk colors three times already, and had taken up two-thirds of the board with this one problem. I could hear his prim voice tinkling from behind the glass, but it was garbled, and completely incomprehensible. Tepig was lounging on top of the small wooden desk next to the board, grinding a bit of chalk into its surface. Students in the audience were staring straight forward, no one making a sound.

I exhaled a sigh of relief. He wasn't in any danger at all.

Turning to Bianca, I grumbled "Why did you drag me all the way here? He's fine! So what if he hijacked a class or something? He'll probably get a medal or something like that for being a good citizen..."

Bianca's green eyes welled up to a huge, anime-worthy size "But-but... if he continues to learn more, his head will explode and then no more Cheren. Or what if he doesn't explode but instead enslaves the human race and make us build really big things for him all the time? Or what if he trips on a piece of chalk and breaks his face and has to have a face transplant with Tepig? Or what if..."

I put a hand on Bianca's shoulder. Her eyes now dwarfed most of her face, and I could see Oshawott had taught her well in the ways of puppy-facing. I gave her a pat for comfort like good friend; Thorn knocked her upside the head with his tail like a jackass.

"I think he'll be cool as long as he doesn't get hulled off to jail for breaking and entering. And it doesn't look like any child molestation's goin'on, so we're clear there too." I sniffed "Why don't we go do some training to pass the time until he's done?" I felt Thorn tail start to flick against my head, and I could picture the devious smile on his face. A similarly devious appeared on my own mug.

Bianca sniffled, but drew out her pokeballs, and nodded.

**OOOOOOO**

An hour later, we stormed into Cheren's class. He barely gave us a glance or acknowledgment before returning to his new problem on the board, which had several pictures of the basic elements drawn out with complicated formulas containing many variables underneath. Wordlessly, all three of us plopped down in chairs, Thorn and I on stools at the back, Bianca at a worn old-school desk at the front of the room wedged in a corner.

I took off my hat, messing with my sweat-drenched hair. Thorn in the chair next to me played with the Band-Aid I had slapped on his steel-wool-rubbed-raw mark on his tail. Today Hello Delcatty was cosplaying as a cutesy leprechaun, wearing a clover green dress with sweet-heart neckline and a hairpiece made up of four leaf clovers and a golden horseshoe; its exaggerated rainbow colors stood out against his leaf-green skin. Using my sweat bands, I wiped the perspiration off my damp forehead that had collected around the edges of my hat.

It had been sweltering out there, with almost no trees with leaves left for cover from the sun's brutality. We had battled for almost for the full hour, Thorn facing off against all four of Bianca's Pokémon. She apparently had caught a Purrloin, Lillipup, and Patrat at some time before she made her way into the city, in addition to her crybaby Oshawott, who was still a total pushover. Literally, all Thorn had to do was _look _at it, and it paled and flopped over stiff as a bored. As awful of me it was, I still laughed my ass off at it, which earned me a pout from Bianca.

Thorn was the one who had called it quits, being too tired to continue after having fun beating up Bianca's Pokémon round after round. He may be a brat, but he is pretty strong. Maybe I could stand a chance against these gym leaders I said I would be challenging.

I tried to smile at the thought of dominating the region with Thorn as my partner, but the energy needed for it just wasn't there. My exhaustion had begun to tug at my eyelids again, causing them to instinctively want to close. I glanced at the clock on the egg-shell white wall behind the desk; it read 2:15. I sighed; thinking if the class wasn't over already, it would likely be over by three. Leaving plenty of time for a nap. I turned to Thorn, poking him in the side.

"Wake me up when class is over, kay?"

I then realized he had started to curl up on the chair, tail being tucked under his head to act as a pillow.

He gave me a spiteful look _"You kidding? I need some shut-eye too after last night's episode, too. Get your own dang alarm clock."_ and with that he shut his eyes and turned away, effectively ending the conversation.

I growled, but let him be, shutting my eyes, letting exhaustion take me.

**OOOOOOOO**

_I was standing in front of the rose bud again, its red petals glowing bright pink against the white background of my dream. I didn't know why I was already here, at the base of the rose, but for some reason I didn't worry; the air was calm, the atmosphere tranquil. Not even a speck of a shadow._

_ Taking a closer look at the flower bud, I noticed it seemed the bud wasn't closed as tightly as it was last time; it had been snapped shut like a rich lady's purse, but this time it seemed put more natural, its petals slightly parted the way nature intended._

_ I lean forward to rub its slick surface, exhaling my tension as its beauty began to calm me. In the background a flute began to softly whistle, replacing the voice that had been the background last time I was here. When was the last time I was here? I couldn't remember though everything seemed familiar to me. Still, I didn't worry. Hell, it was so calm here, I half expected hula skirt-wearing beauties to come waltzing by with fruity drinks and a rope hammock to spring up between a few palm trees so I could finally sleep; wait, wasn't I already asleep? Weird… _

_ Something moved within the bud, making my head snap up. I planted my face right up to the bud, inhaling its gorgeous scent into my nose, trying to make shape of what was inside. Up close, I began to sort of make out shapes within the rose: perhaps a pair of long pointed legs pulled up like the figure was in the fetal position, or maybe the outline of a pair of thin shoulders that had vines dripping off them gracefully. The… thing inside wasn't like anything like I'd ever seen before, much less even imagine. Creativity didn't run in my family, and naturally, I didn't have a speck of it to imagine such a strange thing._

_ The inner glow that had once been a gentle glimmer began to heighten into a full on spot light, and it began to blind me. I shrunk back, but as I did I noticed the shadows swirling around my legs. I fell back onto the ground, and the shadows began to engulf the dream-scape again. The world crumbled, the blank white background darkened, and then began to flake away like peeling paint, leaving an even darker darkness behind it._

_I was hit the sharp pang of head trauma again and I curled into a sideways ball, trying to craw for my throbbing head, but the grabby shadows got to my hands first, and rendered them completely immobile. Another shot of agony ripped through me, everything from my toes to my shoulder blades crying out from under my skin. There was a lifting sensation in my back, and I thought for a moment the pain was being lifted from my shoulders, only to realize I was ACTUALLY floating up._

_I felt myself being pulled away, being lifted as the world beneath me crumbled away to dust bunnies. I grappled for the ground, but kept coming up empty every time I thought I finally got a hold of a handful or grass. I was ripped away, my body freezing up and killing the natural instinct to move when one is being pulled away by an unknown force. I couldn't turn my head to look to see who or what was lifting me away, and my eyes were stuck on the rose bud; I wanted to see what was inside..._

_ A black form from within the bud seamed up against the see-through rose petals, causing the entire world to shake like a plucked Joltik web. It was a five-fingered, clawed hand, it's thorn-sharp claws scraping down the inside of the rose bud, making the dream world emanate the muffled drum-like sounds a horror movie does when the heroine sees the slasher for the first time._

_ I screamed, but I heard no sound._

In the real world, I lashed out, trying to hide the clawed hand from my vision. My hand made contact with the world around me, one being hard and plastic, then one strangely plant-like, feeling like the fern I had at home; I felt them go flying away from me. My hand continued its follow-through of the swing until it hit the rough concrete wall, when my eyes popped open. My fingers seized in pain, and I grabbed for them, felling them throbbing angrily against my other hand, well pissed off for being slammed into the wall.

Thorn had been knocked from his perch on the chair, sending him and the chair both colliding with a crash on the floor. Thorn was wiggling around to grasp at his own throbbing fingers, letting out a string of curses which would have certainly been beeped out if this was a TV show. I then realized Cheren was looking us, causing the entire class to follow his gaze like little lost Duckletts follow their mother. I ducked my head sheepishly. _Dammit._

I readied myself to apologize with some lame ass explanation for spazing out, but then Thorn was at my throat, hanging onto me by the collar of my vest, feet firmly planted on my chest.

His claws scrapped at my bare chest as he spat at me. _"WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU? It hasn't even been five minutes and you're already disrupting my sleep. Four words, you pathetic ragamuffin. Take. Some. Damn. ZZZquil. AND LEAVE ME ALONE!"_ he hissed, his nose inches from my own.

I wrapped my hands around his tiny body, a razor-sharp retort dancing on the edge of my tongue. I was melting in my own boiling fury but more than Thorn's face swam into view with him being this close. I noticed the deep lines punctuating his under eyes. The retort froze in my mouth, a flicker of sympathy rising up in my chest. _He must not have slept at all last night after the incident._ He looked really tired. If he looked this bad, I couldn't imagine how awful I looked.

The anger deflated like a popped party balloon. "Thorn, I..."

_"You know what? I don't care anymore. Where's a flippin' vending machine? I need some Red Bull."_ Thorn began as he wiggled in my grasp, trying to pull himself out of my hands.

"WHAT IN TARNATION IS GOING ON IN MY CLASSROOM?!" A loud booming voice echoed from the back of the class, shaking us all with its angry might. All the bodies in the room pivoted to stare at the voice in the doorway, mine and Thorn's included.

A large, buff man in an immaculate white suit stormed in through the door way, making a beeline for Cheren, who was holding up a rather girly looking Poketoy he had been using in his lecture. Tepig, sensing danger, leapt up from the desk, letting lose a small shower of embers from his nose in warning; they flickered brightly as they singed the desk, leaving the room with a bit of a campfire smell.

The man grabbed Cheren by the collar of his jacket, glaring down at him; a long red vein pulsed on his tree-trunk sized neck. "Now tell me what in the world you are doing in my classroom young man, before I skin 'yiz and wear you as my new hat!" The buff man yelled in Cheren's face, a bit of an angry redneck accent peeking through.

Cheren huffed in a deep breath, obviously surprised by the situation. He tried to lessen the man's hold on his jacket, but the man's tensed fingers wouldn't budge, so he went to trying to fix his flustered hair. "Well... sir... all these kids were just sitting in the room doing nothing, and I saw no note on the desk or anything, so I thought you had, you know... left..." He squeaked out.

"I was taking my darn lunch break, snot!" the buff man yelled, mushing 'my' and 'darn' together to form a rather country sounding angry spit.

Even though I was still in mid-killing-Thorn, and still a little taken back by this dude's sudden appearance, I piped up from my corner in the back of the class. "Who takes an hour and a half lunch break?!"

The man turned to country-spit at me. "I do! Beauty needs time to fully blossom, and lunch is no 'ception!" His face was totally red now, rouge veins popping up all over his neck and face, giving him the appearance of an angry puzzle.

Before I could ask confused for a better explanation, a kid raised his hand in the middle of the class and stood up, addressing us all. "Uh, I have no idea what's going on here, we're just the hearing-disabled cosmetology club, and this guy just came in and started writing stuff about Pokémon types up on the board. Um, Teacher, why is he here?"

The entire room went silent.

I think I heard the Pidove next to the window fart.

Bianca broke the silence, laughing her butt off. She fell out of her chair, crashing to the ground, stamping her hand on the floor. He floundered around like a Frilish out of water, her flailing legs knocking over the recycle bin and a standee next to the sink yammering about the importance of hand washing. I followed suit, leaning back against the wall behind me, letting one hand drop from Thorn's midsection to cover my eyes. I kicked over a trashcan, laughing harder as its contents splayed out over the floor. Still laughing, I tried to reach down and pick it up, but the hand I had placed on a flimsy rack of eye-shadow collapsed, and _it also _went spilling on the floor. I cackled even louder.

"So... wait... they didn't hear a word I said... and this is a cosmetology class?!" Cheren yelped from within the teacher's masculine grip. He was staring in disbelief at the kid who had just stood up and talked eyes big as an Amolamola's. His eyes flew to the various hygiene posters and wracks of beauty supplies set up around the room and looked positively suicidal.

The teacher sucked in a mighty breath, about to yell again, when an even louder voice from outside screamed out and shook us all again.

"STAMPEDE!"

All the heads and their attached bodies in the room swiveled in unison again to look this time out the window. The teacher threw open the curtains and we all gazed into the spectacle outside. Civilians were running around like mad people out there, slamming doors and running around in circles fearfully. All the people that had been reclining lazily on the cafe porch had now all risen distraughtly from their seats, all eyes turned at the approaching dust cloud coming in the direction from the forest north-east of Town.

Thorn still in hand, I ran through the classroom and through the door, sprinting through the rest of the Trainer's school and outside. The sound of pounding feet behind me intensified until the entire contents of all the classrooms had poured out into the street to witness... an onslaught of pink floating Pokémon.

They filled the air, sweeping over the town in one mighty sea of floating flower-printed floaty things. They latched onto anything they could grab onto with their tiny feet, using physic powers to move objects to send them flying towards the direction they had come from.

It was almost magical, the chaos around us. The rest of the students and the buff teacher had fled as another wave of Pokémon came down on us, brushing past my hair and clothes. I watched transfixed as they floated around me.

"Pink floaty things... pink floaty things everywhere..." Cheren gasped in a low voice.

"Eeeek! What are they?" Bianca squealed, ducking behind Cheren.

_"Are they made of candy? Can I eat them?"_ Thorn inquired, licking his lips as one of the pink Pokémon floated by.

Wordlessly, I pulled out my Pokedex, and held it up to the air, letting it react to the Pokémon suspended above us. The Pokedex chimed:

_ "Munna: the Dream Eater Pokémon. It eats the dreams of people and Pokémon. When it eats a pleasant dream, it expels pink-colored mist."_

"So their Munna, huh..." Cheren looked up to the sky as the Munna frolicked about.

"I wonder what their so scared about..." Bianca chimed in over Cheren's shoulder.

Unlike them, I could actually hear the words the distressed Munna were shrieking, their fearful words scraping across my ear drums like a peeler on a raw carrot.

_ "Help us!"_

_ "Our home was invaded!"_

_"They made us flee!"_

_"I'm scared..."_

And then another one reached my ears, causing my eyes to grow wide. Thorn in my grasp stiffed, glancing up at the frightened Munna with hooded eyes of anger.

_"They called themselves Team Plasma!"_ the Munna wailed.

"Team Plasma! What are they doing here?!" I yelled taking off in the direction of the Munna's entrance, putting Thorn on my head so he could travel more easily. He obliged by digging his claws into my scalp.

Behind me I heard Cheren growl "Team Plasma? Here? Did they cause the stampede?"

"Ahh, why would Team Plasma do that?!" Bianca wailed.

I continued my charge to the forest where the Munna burst through, when a gloved hand clapped down on my shoulder. I turned sharply and saw an Officer Jenny standing above me in a tan skirt-suit, eyes firm beneath her short teal hair and tan police cap.

"You're a trainer, right? We need all the help to control the Munna we can get, so please help!"

I whipped my head around to glare at the police woman irritated. "Hey, I'm kinda busy here. Go find somebody else."

"Please! We need the cooperation of everyone-"

We flew apart as the remains of a dumpster flew dangerously close to our bodies. I ducked under a bench as Jenny holed up behind a mailbox, her short teal hair a sweaty mess, sticking up all over the place. I huffed, trying to force air through my shell-shocked lungs. The air felt heavy and dense, refusing to slide down my throat and give me my thinking ability back.

I came to the conclusion that catching TP would have to wait.

With a grunt and push, I was up on my feet again, Thorn at my side giving me sideways glances. I helped the officer up, giving her an irritated glare but complying with her wishes. "Where do we begin, ma'am?"

Cheren and Bianca's footsteps echoed behind me, and they appeared ready with their Pokémon to help out too. Officer Jenny pointed off to a section where the Munna were thickest, barley being able to see the sky between their plumb pink bodies.

"Start over in the center, and work your way out to the edges. I'm going to go round up some more trainers from the Trainer's school..." She said charging off as a Munna slammed a car into a light pole, trying to get it to clog the entrance to the forest. The pole was horribly bent, making a _wernt_ noise and bending to form a strange hunchback shape.

"Thorn this way!"

"Oshawott, use Tackle over there!"

"Tepig, use Gyro Ball and knock them from the sky!"

Thorn and I ran off into the thickest part of the hoard, me issuing commands and Thorn whipping Munna out of the sky like it was going out of style, flinging them to the ground where people waited with nets to capture them. We dodged the flying objects that filled the air, jumping and diving to avoid being pummeled by them. A pot and its half-dead went flying towards our heads, and Thorn dodged it gracefully as a gymnast; I just flattened myself to the ground like a Stunfisk, staring up into the agitated Munna clumps that filled the sky like solid pink clouds.

The Munna were becoming increasingly hostile, our efforts to calm them being taken as a threat.

The Munna hoards were lifting heavier and heavier things; another car slammed into the ground at Thorn's feet, he hopping backwards at the last second to avoid it; a tile maker's decorative tiles in his shop's front window were launched into the air, being shattered by Zen Headbutt then shot off like little missiles by Psychic.

I stepped aside to allow a rain storm of tiles shards shoot by, one clipping the side of my exposed arm in the process, sending a sharp needle of pain through my arm. Thorn leapt back to me, dodging a Munna's Hypnosis, and I noticed he was getting cut up as well. A welt on his chest was oozing, and he was covered in scratches from glass scrapes. He knelt to the ground to catch his breath, leaning against my shin for support.

"Come on Thorn, don't quit now! Keep using Vine Whip. Catch the objects the Munna are hurling around the City!"

I pulled him up to his feet, brushing the dirt and sand off of him. He glance back before leaping forward again into the air, smacking down an oncoming trash bin. It mashed into the ground, wrenching in half upon impact. Thorn swatted a Munna down from the air, sending it flying into a net below.

The Munna had grown exceptionally thinner, the sky actually visible through the mess of pink bodies floating in the air. Thorn landed on the ground again, several Munna falling from the sky and landing on the ground behind him. He then fell forward onto his hands, breathing deeply. I rushed to his side, helping him up.

_"Can I take a nap now? I never did get my Red Bull..."_ he huffed into my arms. Realizing their foe was weak, the Munna began to close in around us.

I shook Thorn's sleepy form hard; _No, no, no you can't fall out now!_

"Stoutland, use Reversal!"

I looked up to see an overgrown Lillipup flying over us and crashing into the wall of Munna that had formed. It landed a few feet away from us, fluffy cheek fur blowing in the wind like a silk scarf. Munna went flying everywhere, including into readied nets that had miraculously sprung up behind me, snapping closed around their prisoners like a fly-trap plant.

The Stoutland's trainer rushed forward, long, straight, midnight purple hair streaming out behind her like a flag. Her lab coat whipped up in the wind created by Stoutland's attack blowing it and her pink dress underneath around.

"Roar, Stoutland!" she commanded.

Stoutland tipped its head back, letting lose a mighty roar, causing all the Munna to shake with fear again. They floated close to the ground, crying out as they realized how much Stoutland's size dwarfed their own.

Thorn opened his red eyes. With a mighty effort, he sprang out of my arms and flew at the lower-hovering Munna like a jet plane. Using Vine Whip, he roped them all together, and then wrapped his entire body around them, constricting them in his grasp.

I gasped. _Wrap! Thorn learned Wrap!_ At least I was pretty sure it was Wrap…

Thorn flung them into the ground as a whole, twisting his body to avoid the brunt of the Munna's weight upon impact. They smashed into the ground, several Munna crying out, and all was silent again as the dust settled. I stared into the ball o' Munna, looking for my green partner to emerge. Hopefully unharmed.

There was a cough, and Thorn pushed aside a Munna's huge round butt to stand in front of us all. He sat down on his butt, inhaling deep, staggered breaths. I rushed forward and picked him up, cradling him in my arms.

"OK, folks. Let's get a move on, we need to start cleaning up the area..." Jenny called from behind, probably shepherding away the civilians to safer places than the dismantled street.

I heard the clicking of her heels as she walked away, but then heard the clicking of another pair of heels as they approached me. I looked up, and saw the lilac eyes of the purple haired trainer of the Stoutland.

"Are you two OK? " she pulled me to my feet, being careful with Thorn's hurt form.

"Your Snivy was fantastic out there. He has some fantastic strategies when using his moves in succession." She gasped, as breathless as all of us. Suddenly remembering she hadn't introduced herself, she stuck out a hand.

"My name is Fennel."

I mumbled a 'thank you' for the sake of politeness, but then blabbed out stupidly "Is he going to alright?" The purple-haired lady did seem like a doctor.

Fennel smiled, her gentle smile one like a mother's, instantly soothing me. "Oh, I think he'll be fine with a few bandages. You see, he's not fainted, he's napping." She giggled.

Indeed, within my arms, Thorn had dozed off, chest rising and falling lightly, tail twitching on occasion. I smiled, relieved he was alright. The fear of losing him had been nibbling at my gut, and the thought of solitude almost made me shiver. I shook it off, shifting him to my shoulder to free up my right hand, laying his head carefully in the crook of my neck for support. Looking back at Fennel, I asked "Do you know what caused the Munna to stampede like they did?"

Fennel looked off into the woods, a distant look in her eyes, and then glanced back at me. She rung her hands together I front of her, her face a bit sad.

"Though I'm not quite sure, I do have an idea. If you wouldn't mind joining me in my lab, we could patch your little Snivy up and continue this conversation, hmm?" she perked up a bit.

I nodded and she smiled. She led us through the ruined plaza, and off to a brownstone apartment, humming a song softly to fill the empty space the battle had left.

* * *

**Wee! That was a fun Chapter to write! Pokegirl, saying howdy, with Thorn**

**Thorn-"When Munnas attack"**

**Hehe, eyup. The munna paraded all over Striaton city**

**Thorn-" and totally destroyed the plaza, and possibly the only vending machine I saw that had Red Bull in it..."**

**Your better off without the caffeine anyway**

**Thorn-"..."**

**So, Mina dreams of the field again; what could it mean? Why does the scene always fall apart when Mina tries to see whats inside the rose? What is team plasma up to, and when will we see N again?!**

**Come back soon for the next chappie, and please keep reading and reviewin'!**


	11. Chapter 10:The Ghetesis has Been Doubled

Chapter 10: The Ghetesis has been Doubled!

Fennel's lab was extraordinarily simple compared to Professor Juniper's.

The only piece of machinery in the room other than a few laptops was a strange machine with a deep blue dome and chrome cappings hooked up to a metal rail bed like the ones they have at hospitals. Also quite unlike Professor Juniper's, it was remarkably uncluttered, everything seeming to have a place and be in it. Numerous hammer-on shelves lined the walls, and were filled to the brim with research books of every kind, all set up neatly and held up by two Cubchoo bookends.

There was a small seating area towards the front part of the room, close to where you entered from the stair well. A small square table was set up with four padded chairs with purple cushions and a vase filled with sunny daisies. A purple and white, striped rug clung to the floor under the table and looked like it was made of yarn. The whole room smelled like China Rain incense, a vanilla candle, and green tea.

Thorn's small green form was curled on the blush-pink blanketed bed, still deep in sleep, Fennel sitting on a walnut colored stool next to the bed with a pale pink emergency kit lying on the edge of the bed. She gingerly picked up Thorn's scratched arm, slathered a thick smelling cream on the thin scratches, and then covered them with medical tape. He twitched at her touch. She was dabbing the wound on his chest with a rag soaked in alcohol and water when she spoke.

"So, you want to meet all the Pokémon in the Unova region?"

From my perch on one of the four purple-seated, I nodded, watching the long strands of black-brown hair that came off from either side of my hat moving with me. I rubbed at my bandage-covered arms; most of them were just covered by beige Band-Aids, but one had been bad enough that it had needed to be wrapped. Red was already starting to seep through the medical tape and gauze Fennel had covered it with, causing me to avert my eyes and shuffle nervously. I fiddled with the cup of green tea steeped for me, contemplating if I needed to give her a better answer. I had just finished telling her about getting a Pokedex from Juniper and how I set out on my journey only yesterday.

Fennel smiled from behind a wall of deep purple hair, eyes fluttering from me to Thorn as she continued to bandage him. "Yes, I see. Professor Juniper was an old collogue of mine from several years ago. And, as you can see, I am a scientist as well." She wrapped and ace bandaged around Thorn's middle, and was done. She bent behind the foot of the bed for a moment, and I couldn't see what she was doing.

Looking around, my gaze fell to the strange machine behind the hijacked hospital bed look-alike. Pointing to it I inquired "What do you research?"

Fennel got up from behind the bed again to walk over to a laptop on her walnut desk. There was the clicky-clack of a few computer keys and the machine behind the bed began to whirl with an astonishing blue light.

"What I study is dreams... which leads me to have to explain my thinking about the stampede today..." there was another click and the machine was powered down, mechanical sounds emanating from its metallic base grinding to a stop. The azure glow faded, and the room was plunged back into normal colors.

"There are special Pokémon that we have found in this world that have been closely connected with dreams throughout history: Darkrai, the nightmare Pokémon for example. The psychic-types Xatu and Natu of Sinnoh as well. Here in Unova there is another, and that are called Munna."

My eyes widened a bit in surprise. I folded my hands and rested my chin on them, listening eagerly. Skipping class a lot in high school left me with quite a bit to be desired in the Pokémon-knowledge department, and something as cool as this definitely intrigued me. The thought of maybe getting some insight into the reasoning behind my crazy dream was another thing poking at my brain that compelled me to listen.

Fennel dipped her rag into a bucket of water that had miraculously appeared next to the bed, dragging it around on the water's surface in slow, controlled circles, seeming to try and figure out how to word whatever she was about to say so that a sixteen-year-old teenage girl could comprehend it.

"Most all the Munna in the Unova region live in the Dream Yard, a foresty area north-east of town. That's were all the Munna had fled from earlier today. Also the place where all the Munna were flinging those objects, obviously trying to block it or something. Something disturbed them..." she pulled the rag from the bucket and held it over Thorn, letting the water drip onto his forehead, one drop at a time. A small puddle began to form on his head, and it dripped off the side of his face and soaked into the sheets, turning them a light grey.

"What I want is to figure out what happened there today, as it seemed to be very emotionally traumatizing to both the people of the city and the Munna as well... I want to do this by checking their dreams. It is said that trauma-inducing events are likely to be replayed in the dreams or minds of the inflicted over and over again until it either fades away or permanently link itself to the brain. To be able to do this I will need something from the Dream Yard..." her eyes shifted to me again.

She absentmindedly touched the rag to Thorn's forehead again, and this time his eyes popped open. There was a resounding battle cry and he launched himself into Fennel's hair, snarling and hissing like a maniac as he clawed at her with vengeance. Strands of beautiful purple hair drifted to the floor, as Thorn went wild in Fennel's hair. She was shrieking, wrenching in wild directions as she attempted to throw him off, trying to catch him in her mane of hair but ending up only freaking out even more when he bit down on her ear.

I jumped up and leapt over the bed to them, ripping Thorn from Fennel's scalp with a growl and tossing him away. Fennel 'meep'd a bit, rubbing her sore head with cautious hands as she felt to her ear in case of blood. I pinned Thorn down on the bed with one hand, crouching over him, eyes full of fury.

"What is the matter with you?! She was trying to revive your sorry ass after you exhausted yourself in the battle with the Munna. Tell her you're sorry NOW!"

Thorn blinked his cool red eyes at me surprised, his deep black pupils swollen to the size of softballs, glistening with fright and worry. His mouth was slightly open, little red tongue presses up against his sharp teeth from hissing.

_"I thought you had left... I thought I wasn't with you anymore..."_ he mumbled out, staring at me like I had sprouted wings on my head, danced the cha-cha with the bucket of water next to the bed, and proclaimed I was a Isshushipping fan girl.

I blinked back in surprise at his words, fury drained for a nanosecond before yelping back at him "That's not what I asked for. Say you're sorry, you spiny snot, or I'm throwing you out the window and really abandoning you." I lifted him up off the bed, and lifted him so he could look Fennel squarely in the lilac eyes.

He sniffed, a bit miffed at the threat of being launched out a window for the second day in a row but did as I asked, sneering he was sorry to Fennel's face through eye-lids half closed. I dropped his sorry lot on the bed, which he landed on with a slight bounce before flopping over on his back. I turned back to Fennel, hands still in clawed fists.

I tried to speak as calmly as possible, which I actually succeeded in to some merit, which was a freakin' victory right now. "I'm sorry for my partner's unfortunate lack of pleasurable personality. I would love to help you with this whole dream-thing if I can, as thanks you know for resuscitating Thorn." I cast my eyes to him for a second to see if I could catch any trace of real emotion in his eyes, but instead found him reclining leisurely against a pillow and yawning.

I scowled at him, which earned a chirp of smug laughter from the bastard.

Fennel sniffed, rubbing her poor mangled hair, which was startlingly starting to resemble a Patrat nest. "The Dream Yard is on the outskirts of the city, right through the pile of assorted items the Munna placed there. I need some dream mist the Munna give off in order for my machine to work properly. Would you mind getting some for me?" she handed me a vile with a cork plug shoved in the stop.

I wrapped my fingers around it, and then sent to my pocket, shoving it up against the side of the fabric. I picked up Thorn's splayed out form on the bed, holding him under my arm backwards like a football, leafy tail waving around like an agitated Purrloin's in my face.

"You got it. I totally owe you for all your help."

Fennel smiled "Don't worry, it will be really easy, and quite a bit of fun! I know you can do it ".

As I walked to the door, her voice drew me back again. "You might want to go when it gets dark. Munna are more active then."

I waved and started to walk down the stair, silently hallelujah-ing that I had been gifted with a few more hours of sleep.

**OOOOOOOO**

"Fun, she said. Easy, she said. I don't know about her opinion of that, but sure ain't it!" I yelled out into the dream yard, the stars in the deep, dark sky above twinkling at me mockingly.

"Mina, your temper will scare all the Munna away! Just be patient!" Bianca chided from a few feet away. She was sitting cross-legged, looking up at the stars with Oshawott in her lap. She played with a few pebbles along the ground, their glinting forms jumping and jiving around in the darkness.

I sighed and looked at her grey silhouette on the ground. I had enslaved her help earlier today, after trying to sleep nightmare-less unsuccessfully again, so I wouldn't be running around in a dark creepy place all by myself. Alone other than Thorn, of course, but he was pretty creepy too.

I still had the lingering headache from the nightmares earlier as well, so that also likely aided in my pissy mood.

"I know, I know... we've just been out here for two hours already and not one damn Munna has appeared." I was trying to console myself into keeping a level head and an uncensored mouth, with only some success. "Not even after all the frickin' Munna we saw earlier, it's like they all decided to disintegrate into thin air and are laughing at us now. I guess the whole damn World's all out of Mun-"

There was a sudden explosion of movement from the ground, startling me out of my monologue. "Oooh, look there goes one!" Bianca squealed hopping up and running over to a large, pale-colored wall with a gaping hole in it. She peered around the bushy sapling blocking the entrance, pressing its leaves aside with clawing swipes as she tried to get another look at the receding behind of the floaty Pokémon.

I rushed up to her in time to see a little pink butt floating away into the tall grass that had over grown the area within, leaving not so much as a wisp of dream mist behind. I stepped back to view our entry way, and the tree blocking us from getting in. I flicked a spindly branch on considered the ways we could get in.

_Fire... no fire types; Battle Axe...no battle axe; Pokémon angry enough to tear it down... not happening._ Thorn's too scary as it is, and I really don't want to piss him off and have the chance he maims some innocent thing instead.

Bianca beside me began to whine. "How are we going to get in? We need that Munna! How do we get iiinnnnnnnn?!" She cried like a child who was contained in the backseat by devious child-locks. I sighed, reassessing our options for breaking in, when my eyes settled on Thorn again, particularly his ivy green tail.

Thorn looked up from grinding a few poor bug-types into the ground with his foot to meet my eyes. I looked him over like a stalker, eyes stopping to look at his majestic tail, which was an overgrown leaf shaped like a poison ivy leaf, and it could cut through anything, or anything I had encountered it with, like a knife through and eyeball.

I grinned devilishly; _just like a knife through and eyeball… so what about a tree?_

Grabbing him around the waist, I hoisted him up to the tree, and proceeded to saw at the base viciously with his tail. It cut through the trunk like a saw, sending showers of soft woodchips and tree-dust all over us. Bianca gaped from behind, transfixed by the whole scene. I gritted my teeth and slitted my eyes as bits of tree flew off from how hard I was sawing at the tree, as the dusty bits clung to my hair.

_"Let me down, fiend! I am not some tool you can just hack away at trees with! You will pa-ay-ay-ay you he-ar-ar-ar-ar me? Pa-ay-ay-ay-"_ Thorn snarled as I drug him back and forth over the tree like a hack-saw. His shrill moaning was cut off abruptly by a spray of woodchips flying into his mouth, causing him to hack them back up on my leg.

I hissed as sticky goo dripped down my leg, and threw Thorn to the ground, to which he landed with his butt waving undignified in the air. Grunting, I kicked the sawed-through sapling over, and it fell to the ground and crashed through a few scraggly bushed on the inside of the over grown lot. I stood back and looked over my work with pride, or as much pride one could have when their leg is covered in Snivy goo laced with woodchips. I suppose it just karma for using my partner as a hack-saw, but I hoped it would be worth it in the end.

Bianca squealed in excitement, grabbing my hand as she hopped through the hole and attempted to drag me with her. "Ooh, let's go! We can't let it get away! Let's GO!"

I jumped through the hole behind her, looking over my shoulder to see if Thorn was following. He was picking himself up off the ground, and was now slithering to catch up, his speed astonishing. He then whipped by us, taking a moment up ahead a bit at a fork in the path to sniff the hair with his pointy nose.

_"I can't distinguish which path it took, the entire area stinks of them!"_ Thorn yelled back to us.

When we caught up, I turned to Bianca. "Thorn says he can't tell which way they went. We should split up and each go one way" Thorn stomped his foot impatiently, angling his body off in the right direction from the path. I shot him a look.

"Oh, ok! I got ya..." Bianca said breathlessly before cutting off and looking between Thorn and I. She shuddered. I asked what was bothering her. "It's just its weird you can understand him like that! It's almost like your part Pokémon yourself! Ooh, wouldn't that be cool of you could be part Pokémon? You could learn cool moves like Psychic and Fire Blast, and evolve and change forms and eat berries and..."

Her voice started to fade as Oshawott pulled her down the left path with some obvious effort. He planted his bitty feet one in the front of the other, dragging her by the hem of her calf-length pencil skirt, and yanking her around a corner blocked off by a bush. I was almost thankful it had yanked her away, but her words became entrapped in my mind 'part Pokémon' hitting all the buttons that lead to the _WTF_ response. I could still her yapping nonsense in the distance, so it probably wasn't helping to get the ludacris ideas out of my head.

I started to prep myself for a rant, but was stopped by Thorn whacking the backside of my leg with his tail, which only smeared the Snivy goo and woodchips all over my calves. I shot him a wrinkled nosed look and flicked him in the nose before refocusing at the task at hand, and commanding us forward.

Thorn and I took off down our path, running through the thick brush, slapping stick-y branches aside and kicking rocks out of our way as we charged through. I leapt over a boulder as the rocky path quickly turned to lesser-travel forest, Thorn's thin body twisting in the hair behind me as we landed on the ground, our gravely crunches in sync.

"So what are we going to do when we find it? We can't just pick it up and carry back to Fennel's like a sack of potatoes."

_"Uh, we could use a pokeball, Captain Ignorer of the obvious."_ Thorn said with a flat 'duh' tone in his voice.

I looked up from the pebbly ground underneath us to try and glare at him under my feet. I could only see him between the times my left armed pumped, making it difficult to yell at him. "I don't know how to use a pokeball, you stupid onion bulb! Kind of case in point, I'm always forced to be around you!"

Thorn glared out of the corner of his red eyes, turned a rusty-maroon by the shadows of the dead trees above us and the dim light all around. _"Well, not teaching you to use a pokeball was purposely done to keep you from keeping me stuck in that blasted ball you trainers call our homes. But I guess I can't be avoided now..."_ he mumbled a bit dejectedly from the ground before speeding ahead into what I could see now was the light of a clearing. He sped through a bush and leapt into the gleaming moonlight, momentarily disappearing before I smashed through the shrub as well and joined him in the clearing.

The clearing was actually just a concrete-floored room that had been overgrown by green-ish beige ferns and ivy. The roof was missing, little more than a few stray rotting wooden rafters and metals pipes jutting out from the walls to show one had ever been there. We had two half-walls on either side of, each attached to another piece of concrete creating covered walkways. I did a full 360, looking over the entire area. It looked like we were in the remains of a building; there were a few gaping holes on the floor, leading off dark into the earth or whatever was below the skeleton of the structure.

I felt a hand in my pocket and glanced down to find Thorn hanging onto the front of me with an ivy-green arm. He was digging in my shorts, and emerged with a shiny red and white pokeball in his hands. He let go and landed gracefully on the ground in front of me, glancing up to see my face, which had the dusting of an angry flush spread over its cheeks.

I was left feeling a touch violated at the little endeavor, making a disgruntled swipe for the bastard but only coming up with air and a handful of dirt as he side-stepped my easily. I collapsed to the ground, knees groaning in protest as they strained against the sticky insides of the bandages covering them.

Thorn smirked, holding up the pokeball in his hand and tapping at it with his clawed fingers. _"So, Pokeballs for Dummies chapter one: you press the button on the front and you can return the Pokémon who's ball it is back into it." _He demonstrated by pressing the round white button on the front of the ball, to which it clicked slightly, but nothing else happened.

_ "Pokeballs for Dummies chapter two: you throw it and you catch stuff. That's about it."_ Thorn gave me a mischievous grin, winding up his arm, and then with a snap of his wrist, he let the pokeball go flying over his shoulder and into the shadows of a nearby wall. There was the clicking-clunk sound of plastic hitting the ground and then there was a startled gasp.

I raced past Thorn, heading for the source of the gasp, bewildered thoughts swirling about my head. _What have you done now, ya grassy bastard?! _I charged around the corner, slipping a bit on the grass and careening into the wall. I grunted, pushing myself up as my knees gave another whine of protest and my head throbbed in remembrance of earlier, but I pulled myself around the corner and stumbled into the hall.

I came into the shaded hall and was startled to find what looked like to be a Battle Girl, dressed in the traditional red Chinese-style top and matching cheongsam pants, long deep brown braid running down her back frizzy with surprise. Her chocolate milk eyes were fixated on the ground before her, which beheld the _exact_ pokeball Thorn had just thrown over his shoulder, which was writhing on the ground as the Pokémon inside tried to get out.

_Wait, what the hell was going on?!_

Thorn appeared at my side, eyes hardly blinking as he observed the scene with little interest. He scratched at his nose indifferently.

The Battle Girl was still completely hysterical, completely shattering the 'calm-cool-and-collected' warrior image, falling onto her knees, kneeling forward, yelling at the ball and beating her hands on the rubble ground. "Come on, Panpour, you can do it! Fight! You can escape!" She pounded the ground next to the ball like it would cause it to spring open and release what was inside.

I whirled to look down at Thorn, ponytail bouncing along with me. "Thorn, what did you do?!" I bet my eyes glowed just red with fury as his did when he was angry. A trickle of sweat ran down the side of my face, attempting to cool down my raging body, but my rage was so hot, I think it just boiled and evaporated instead.

Thorn didn't even flinch at my angry tone, or seemed to notice my steamed appearance, shrugging with a grimace as he replied. _"Stuff happens. Your fault for letting me do it."_

Before I could yell at him some more, I was startled by the _shinkg_ and the mini shower of s silver stars spitting from the rounded form of the pokeball on the ground. I slowly turned around and squinted bewildered at it, regarding it like a rampaging beast about to attack.

_You caught your first Pokémon._

I was struck upside the head by the thought, making me blink and stop steaming for a moment. I had caught my first Pokémon, and I didn't even catch it on my own. The anger flared up again, licking at my face like raging water on an innocent dock before the tsunami barreled it over.

_What has Thorn done...?_ I screamed to myself as I felt all the color drain from my already pale face.

The Battle Girl had her mouth open in disbelief as she regarded the ball on the floor. Tightening her fists, she picked herself of the floor and stormed over to me, sun-tanned finger pointed squarely at my face.

"What's the matter with you?! You just caught my friend, you bitch! You caught MY Panpour! What they heck, man?!" She shoved the finger against my chest, digging in hard to my boney chest. Up close, I could smell Oran berries and honey on her sickly sweet hot breath, making me gag and shove her away.

I stabbed my own finger at her chest, spouting off like an angry child, "It's not my fault my partner is a vicious idiot! You can't be getting mad at me for his lack of respect!" And at the moment the words flew out of my mouth I realized she actually could. Blame me, I mean... _wow; I was turning out to be a miserable trainer..._

"Yes I can blame you, for lettin' him do stuff like that!"

"He doesn't listen!"

"You're just making excuses for why you're too lazy to tame him!"

"Would be easier, if he was tame-ABLE!"

"Any Pokémon can be taught to listen to their trainer, if the trainer is strong enough."

"Well I'm a good enough trainer to catch other people's Pokémon! I ain't ever heard of anybody being good enough to do that before!"

"Them's fightin' words, bitch!"

She leapt on me suddenly, shoving my face into the ground and holding it there as I flailed around like a helpless Basculin as to regain my grounding. I retaliated by kicking her back with my heel, making her groan in pain but not lessen her grip. I elbowed her jerkily in the face, which was enough to get her to release me that I could move. I rolled out from under her grip, giving her a knee to the side and climbing up to kneel on her chest, making her gasps uneven and labored. I was about to attempt to talk some sense into the chick when she caught me across the face with her hand, sending me back onto my butt, grasping the side of my face as it prickled with stinging pain. She jumped me again, and we rolled back out into the clearing, shoving each other's faces in the dirt and straggly weeds. She kept trying to use some wacky martial-arts moves on me, but I had to keep going street-style to block them, so we sort of ended up in an all-out catfight that could be classified as anything other than dignified.

Thorn, throughout this entire process, was just standing against the half-wall in the hallway we had just rolled from, drinking a cup of tea in a set of fine china, porcelain white cup and saucer with little blue details curling around the cup. He lifted it to his mouth for sips, raising his pinkie and watching the spectacle of me tangling with the Battle Girl over the rim of the cup. Hell, I half expected him to pull out a monticule and start commentating "I say..." in and old English voice.

I gave the girl another sock to the chin, to which she retaliated by pulling some flying jujitsu-kick to my jaw, and sending my sprawling out on my back as I crashed into the ground. My head blazing with agony, and the fight-or-flight part of my brain was telling me to bail, but the urge to beat the shit outta this chick had overiden every coherent, non-violent thought, and I was lunging for her again when an explosion of noise shot through the clearing.

There was the crashing sound of plants being trampled upon and the snapping of sticks being broken and the cursing of hitting something metal, which in turn resulted in a dejected sounding _ding!_ and four figures ran into the clearing, causing us to look up from bludgeoning each other to bloody pulps.

The first of the figures was small and round, squealing _"MUUUUUUNNNN" _as it hastily floated by; the second had short, flippy hair and an industrial sized hat that looked more like a flying saucer than sensible head gear; the last two were near identical, both clanging as they ran in their heavy, grey-blue chain-mail knight outfits. When their insignias on their outfits came to light, I growled.

Two Team Plasma grunts stood in front of us, dressed in the full knight rig, startlingly real swords hanging in their scabbards at their sides. There was one man and one women, both with similar golden hair and cold green eyes, which were furrowed as they pushed past the second figure, which I could tell was Bianca, courtesy of her enormous hat, and stalked up to the Pokémon that had floated in first; it was a Munna.

The male grunt kicked me and the entwined Battle Girl away, making us shout in pain as we rolled through the scratchy grass, the various bruises we sustained groaning in agreement as they got mashed into the hard ground. I looked up through a piece of sun bleached grass dangling off my bangs to see the grunt wind up his foot, and slam it into the distressed Munna, kicking it like a squealing pink soccer ball, and sending it flying closer to the Haxorus-sized hole a few yards away from us in the grass. The Munna _screamed _unlike anything had ever heard, its distressed voice only making the grunt smiled deviously and start walking to the Munna to kick it again.

"We found you, Munna! And you're going to give us what we want!" He kicked it again, his rugged-bottom boots leaving an angry red scratch on the Munna's flower-printed pink coat, making its eyes scrunch up in pain.

_ "...MU!"_

"Quit it, you're hurting her! She's not going to be able to make dream mist if you keep torturing her!" Bianca wailed from her spot on the ground, a little dirt patch she had been pushed into when the grunt rushed by. She tried to pick herself up from the ground, but the female grunt was there to slam her own boot into Bianca soft stomach, sentencing her back to the ground.

"We're going to get that dream mist, and there's nothing you can do about it!"

"I can do something about it!" I had picked myself up from the ground, and had risen to my full 5'6, grass and hitchhiker covered height, as in some means of threaten them. I rose to my tip toes, trying to command the presence of an accomplished Serperior. I felt Thorn twine his way through my ankles, crouching low between my legs, looking very animalistic. "Like hell are you losers gonna get off easy for hurting a poor innocent Pokémon like that! It didn't do jack to you!"

The male grunt turned from stomping on the frighten Munna to sneer at me "Who do you think you are kid?! We are Team Plasma, and we will liberate all Pokémon from the foolish humans who enslave them!" he proclaimed, looking very proud of himself.

The Battle Girl in the grass behind me had rolled over unto her stomach, and was now yelling at TP too. "If you're using violence to get people away from Pokémon, all you're going to do is Liberate Pokémon of their lives! If anything, you're the ones who need to be pried away from Pokémon, you're no better than this lazy trainer over here!" She hiked a finger up at me.

Before I could hiss back, the female grunt was talking again. "We need the dream mist because it can show peoples's dreams. We are going to use it to convince them to liberate their Pokémon! If we have to use underhanded methods to attain our goal, then so be it! It's far bigger than you could ever understand, you weak and useless midgets!"

On cue, the male grunt lifted his leg again, and kicked the Munna back towards the center of the clearing. The writhing creature arched in the air before skidding to a stop at Bianca's feet, the bloody Pokémon having gone still. Bianca burst out into tears, big fat ones that dripped rainbowed colored down her cheeks and seeped into the dry ground. She picked up the Munna in her arms, the blood pouring from its mouth and nose staining her cheery orange sweater vest; it was not so cheery anymore, covered in the blood of a tortured Pokémon.

_ "...Mu...naaa...", "All I see is red..."_

The grunt's shadow over took her body as he loomed in front of her, foot raised at the ready to bring down its full weight on both of them. "If you're not going to give and let us continue our righteous work, I'm going to have to crush you too!" He brought his foot down, mud-covered bottom of his boots glistening from fresh blood from the Munna, looking very heavy and painful to be stepped upon with.

"Thorn, use Wrap!"

Thorn strung from my ankles, and went flying into the grunt, hissing like a deranged...well...Snivy, all the way. He landed on the grunt's shoulder, and then went haywire all over his body, wrapping his tail and arms around the grunt's scrawny midsection, then squeezing with all his might, biting down on the grunt's stomach for good measure. The grunt howled in pain, his eyes bulging from being squeezed to tightly.

"If that's how you want to play, we are game! Go, Purrloin!" The female grunt yelped, throwing her pokeball directly at her constricted partner, the slick metal ball bouncing off Thorn's nose, causing him to break his ring around the grunt. The grunt smacked him to the ground where the newly released Purrloin laid waiting, gleaming claws outstretched.

"Purrloin, Scratch!" The claws were fast, visible only a moment before meeting the skin of their target. They raked across Thorn's chest, ripping open his filmy white medical tape bandages, and tearing open the gash on his chest again. He was knocked back onto his butt, giving him a good view of his maroon-gushing chest, which Thorn regarded with a scowl, like it was more like a troublesome flea getting a snack rather than a deep-cut wound gushing his insides out.

"Thorn, get of your butt, quit staring at your blood, and use Vine Whip!" I shouted as the Purrloin closed the distance between them again, claws out for more blood.

Thorn lurched forward, sending thin, willowy vines flying out to slam into Purrloin's face, leaving a vine-shaped red mark on its deep purple cheek as he bitch-slapped her way. She landed a few feet away, gracefully on her beige-pawed feet, lips curled in a hiss, sharp yellow-ish white teeth vicious in the moonlight.

_ "You will regret ever doing that, grass vermin!"_

Thorn dashed forward, getting up in Purrloin's face quick as a Vine Whip. _"And you will regret ever calling me vermin, dark-type whelp!"_

"Thorn, use Wrap!"

Thorn constricted his body around his prey, which screeched at a heightened decibel only reserved for extreme pain. She clawed at her throat, trying to scratch through Thorn's thick scales to wound him enough to shrink away. Thorn was not merciful though, tightening his grip the more she struggled.

"Patrat, use Bite!"

I looked surprised from Purrloin's choking form to see the male grunt's Patrat coming down on Thorn's with teeth glowing threateningly. They clamped around the end of Thorn's tail; a very awkwardly surprised look came over Thorn's pointed features.

_"RRRROOOOUUUWWW!"_ Thorn shrieked, sounding very much like Purrloin that's had its tail stepped on. Or in this case bitten.

Using this as an opportunity for escape, Purrloin dug her claws in under Thorn's body and launched his up off her, sending him into the air over her head.

"Purrloin, use Scratch!"

"Patrat, use Bite!"

Together, the two Pokémon came down on Sky-Dropped helpless Thorn, Purrloin's claws raking through his sensitive leafy tail, Patrat's gnashing teeth at his neck. They separated from Thorn just before impact with the ground, letting him bounce and skid his way over to my booted feet.

His eyes opened for a second, bright red against the rust-red background of the blood drying to his face. _"I guess I'm pretty good at getting my butt kicked aren't I?"_ he mumbled sourly, scrunching his eyes in pain before pushing himself to his tiny feet, shaking so much he had to double forward onto his hands, eyes glaring murder at the smug grunts in front of us.

"Give it up. Two against one, you'll never win!" The male grunt laughed, daring me to make a move. It was almost like he was threatening me to prove his point, that humans enslave their Pokémon and push them for their own selfish need. I wasn't going to sink so low as to endanger Thorn more than I already had in this battle; no, I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of being right. Thorn's pride would have to be pushed aside if we were going to save the Munna.

Remembering the events before the past ten minutes, I quick swooped down to find the pokeball Thorn had launched earlier. When my tough met the cool metal shell of it, I swiped it from the grass, metallic red top half reflecting the moon above. I did not throw it, however; I turned to the Battle Girl in the grass beside me.

"Will you let me use it?" I said holding out the ball to her. Her eyes had been wide with fear, but were now wide with surprise, their brown murkiness cloudy with the reflection of the moon being cast off from the ball before her. She reached a quivering hand out to reach for the ball, stopping a few centimeters from it, fingers shaking with indecision. Finally she inhaled deeply, and retracted her hand. She looked me in the eyes, the direness of the situation clear to her now.

"He is yours now. Treat him well..."

I smiled down at her, grinning like the sun through this dark and desperate night. I turned back to the battle and began to wind my arm up to release my new friend.

"Purrloin, Scratch!"

"Patrat, Bite!"

The two came soaring at Thorn, who just laid hunched in his position, eyes flickering up at me, waiting his command. I didn't give him one; as the two attacking Pokémon reached him, translucent needle-like claws and sharp, gnashing teeth, I released my Pokémon.

"Go, Panpour! Use Lick!"

Out he came, a blue furry monkey, a plume of ocean-blue hair sticking up from his head. His eyes were closed in an upturned, happy fashion, but quickly turned to that of battle fury as he lashed out at the attacking Pokémon with his long, sticky tongue. He licked them upside the heads, sending them flying backward into the grunts behind, crumbling at their feet.

I grinned at both Panpour and Thorn, giving Thorn the cue to rise to his shaky feet. Panpour wrapped an arm around Thorn's middle, helping stabilize him. He snarled a sharp hiss in Panpour's direction, but did not shake him off; together they stood, ready for my final command.

Then I couldn't see anything anymore. A bright light had flashed, blinding us all into submission. I felt Thorn shrink back against my legs, Panpour still trying to hold him up. I glared through squinted eyes into the bright abyss, trying to make out what was inside. Wow, does this seem familiar or what? Is this where the dream crumbles?

"What are you two doing goofing off?!" A voice commanded with evident power. We all turned to the right, and a wild GHETESIS had appeared! He stood proud and tall, steeped to his full height, powerful green eye and red metallic one frosting down at us with suspicion. A soft wind blew at his cloak and hair, making them sweep around him like an epic scene from a movie. The grunts visible stiffened their fear of him clear.

We heard the tapping a shoes, and turned left and... there was another Ghetesis behind us; his pale green hair blew in the opposite direction of Ghetesis #1, swirling around him much more wildly, and making for a mirror-like effect between the two.

The grunts were completely silent now, each looking between their monarchs on either side with question marks in their faces.

"The Ghetesis had been doubled!" I couldn't help but yell in an obnoxiously loud voice, both mocking Ghetesis's tone and trying to stifle both a giggle and a gasp at the situation.

Everyone turned and looked at me, grass rustling, pebbles being kicked, chain mail clanging together, and silky cloaks ruffling against each other. Thorn eyed me with constricted pupils, mouth in a tight smile.

"Well said my dear, well said"

"We-e, Team Plasma, shall separate Pokémon from fro-om foolish people..." Ghetesis #2 began to stutter, trying to capture the attention of the situation again. He had took a step forward and was yelling much louder than need be. His tone was obviously practiced, commanding attention and respect with his words just as Ghetesis #1, but he had came unraveled, his attempts at powerful just coming off as comical.

Ghetesis #1 face-palmed, exasperated, and there was another flash of rainbow colored blinding light, and he had merged back together with his double. He stood above the grunts, towering over them in hair, height, and cloak. "If you cannot fulfill your duties..." he began.

The male grunt grabbed the female one around his wrists, shaking them wildly. "Ghetesis... when he was gathering followers or Ghetesis when he is trying to control people by tricking them with speeches!" He shrieked. "The Ghetesis has been doubled all along!"

"Would you quit with that?!" Merged Ghetesis growled from behind, looking very much on the verge of sweeping them under his cloak like a horror movie to whatever torture lie beneath.

The female grunt paled further than her Snow White look-a-like skin already was "This is Ghetesis when a plan has failed, and he's about to issue punishment..."

"Let's scram before that one shows up!"

With a rustle of chain main and the sounds of being pushed through a bush, the grunts were gone, leaving Ghetesis staring off into the distance where they disappeared.

Gheresis moaned, mumbling on how he was surrounded by ignorant children, and then the light flash flashed again, and he was gone, nothing up a silver glittery outline of him left.

I rushed from the grass, which was really starting to itch like a bad rash, and ran over to Bianca, who was still cradling the crippled Munna. Up closer, I could still see the gentle rise and fall of its chest; it was still holding on, if only just.

"Wh-why do they have to be so cre-eul?" Bianca sniffed; her translucent tears falling on the Munna and making it shift slightly. "The-e-ey beat up Oshawott too, so he couldn't battle..." She sucked in a breath again so she could wail some more.

_"Shaaaarrrrrr..."_

I sensed something behind us, and turned to look over my shoulder, brushing the grassy bits in my hair aside to see what had called out behind.

It was a Pokémon; it was beautiful, floating gracefully in its own sense of gravity, curled in Child's Pose like it was sleeping. Its body was dream-scape purple, its head cotton candy pink with a mass of swirly mist billowing from its head in mysterious swirls that ranged in color from midnight to sunset; it glittered softly in the milky white moon beams.

_"Mush...aaaarrrr", "Let me help"_

I backed out of the way, letting it float through to a gawking Bianca. Her tears were frozen in her cloudy green eyes, which were now glittering with hope for the injured Munna. She tentatively held out her arms, lifting the Munna to the floating Pokémon. Munna shifted over, facing outward, and the true expanse of its wounds were now visible in the light of the moon.

The floating Pokémon lowered itself closer to the Munna in Bianca outstretched arms. I uncurled itself slightly, reaching out with one pudgy, child-like arm to touch Munna. It began to hum softly to itself, raising a great swirl of glitter that engulfed us all; Lucky Chant.

The humming heightened to a song, similar in tone to that of a bell, that rose high above the dream yard, and swept the entire expanse of the forest. The glitter storm whirled tighter around us, picking up our hair and ruffling our clothes. At the crescendo of a note, the Pokemon's eyes opened; they were deep and black as any dark hole, but gleamed beautifully and lite up pink with power. The storm swirled violently and... dispersed in a shower of gem-like sparkles.

_"MU!"_

Bianca looked into her arms, and Munna was awake. It floated jollily in the air, swirling around Bianca with a smile on its face. She laughed, relieved, and wrapped her arms around it, squeezing it like the pudgy toy it was.

I grinned at them, and walked up to the floating Pokémon still suspended in the air above us. "Are you... an evolution of Munna?"

_"Musssshaaarnaaa..."_

"I see, so you're a Musharna. Can you make dream mist too?"

It gave a sigh, and the mist billowing from its head grew larger. I pulled the vile from my pocket and took that as a yes.

I pulled the cork from the mouth of the vile, and swept it through the stream of dream mist. I watched the color changing mist swirl in the vile, capped it, and then placed it back in my pocket.

"How can we ever repay you?"

Musharna gestured to the ground with a slight tilt of its head. Following its direction, I saw what it was pointing to on the ground. The sparkles given off by Lucky Chant and Heal Bell had condensed in the moonlight, and formed a Moon stone. It's rough facets were like a geode, rough in texture but beautiful to look at. I picked up the translucent, midnight-colored stone and held it up to Musharna. "Is this what you want?"

_ "Give it to the blond child. She will need it when she is ready"_

"Oooh, I see now..." I said, my gaze drifting over to Bianca and her happy Munna, getting what Musharna meant. I turned back to ask it one more thing, but it had disappeared. I smiled kind of expecting that. I grabbed a Pokeball from my bag, and taking that and the Moon Stone in my hand, and tossed them to Bianca's knees. She looked up from Munna surprised.

"Musharna said that was for you. Enjoy..." With that I turned and walked off, back to my own two Pokémon on the other side of the clearing.

"Return, Panpour..." I pressed the button on the ball like Thorn had taught me, and a chirping Panpour disappeared into the red glow, summoned back to its ball. Again I held the ball out to the equally dirty as me Battle Girl with the Chocolate Milk eyes again.

This time she shook her head with no hesitation. "No, I guess he's yours now. He wasn't even really my Pokémon anyways. He was just a wild Panpour I befriended..." She shrugged. "You'll need him more than I will right now."

A funny look came over my face. What, was she going to attack me again? "Why's that?"

"Your starter is a Snivy, a grass-type, right? When you challenge the gym, you'll see soon enough.."

I smiled. "Thank you for the heads up."

"No problem..." she walked off into the darkness of the dilapidated building; I wonder where.

**OOOOOOOO**

_"So I guess you're going to put me up in my pokeball now that you know how to use them, huh?"_

I looked down at my little bloody grass warrior around my feet. His arms were crossed over his chest, his mouth in a bitter line. With one finger, he flicked at a crusty yellow scab on his arm from earlier.

"You know what? I've gotten used to having you around. If I didn't have you around all the time, who else could I disturb their sleep with my nightmares with?" I laughed.

Thorn didn't say anything, but the tension dispersed from his body. He sniffed a bit at the prospect of more lost sleep, but smiled a tiny relieved smile from under his collar.

_ "You just resigned your sanity to me."_

**OOOOOOOOO**

Meanwhile in a conveniently located shed...

"Uh, those wretched grunts! Can't they do anything right?" Ghetesis #1 growled, pacing the expanse of the shed.

"Uh-huh," Ghetesis #2 mumbled, digging around in his robes for his comb. Finding it he began to run it through his hair, breaking it free from all the Triple-lock hair spray he had had to use to get it to stay in such a ridiculous fashion.

"And that girl! Annoying midget! What was she, like 5 foot? And what about 'The Ghetesis has been doubled', what in Arcues's name is that blasphemy?!"

"It's probably some canon saying from the internet..." Ghetesis #2 mumbled, tuning back into the conversation now that the girl who had been beating the grunts' butts had been mentioned again. He had sworn it was the same girl he had met in Accumula town; at least the Snivy looked the same. He undid the button on the front of the cloak he was wearing, and it fell heavy to the floor. The green-haired boy underneath was wearing a simple black turtleneck and a pair of cargo shorts, his menger sponge hanging on a think silver chain around a belt loop. N returned to combing the annoying hair products out of his unruly green hair.

"If only there were actually two of me, then the world would be so much easier to confer!" The real Ghetesis said, twirling his finger in the air as he paced.

"Oh, darn..." N mumbled in a flat voice, seriously sick of his father's constant 'Take Over the World' speeches. He was pretty sure his father didn't mean it, but he could never really be sure.

"You will understand when you are a ruler. Now, I need to Google that saying..."

* * *

**Hello all, its been a while! Pokegirl here, but not with Thorn today... he abondoned me...**

**For those of your who don't know, Thorn decided to apply for a talk show, and somehow HE ACUALLY GOT ONE. The new things called The World According to Thorn, and its updated every saturday. It has almost nothing to do with story as seen up there, he just chats with people form the Pokemon world on occsaion. Check it out all Thorn fans and otherwise!**

**Also I wanna Thank you all for helping me get over 1,000 views in less than a month! Thank you soooo much all my followers and reviewers and keep reading...**

**N-" and reviewing..."**

**Oops, I forgot to mention. I kidnapped N to stay with me while Thorn's off persuing his dream of truamatizing the world.**

**N-"I will never dress up as my father again. You know how much non-eco friendly product he uses? Its repulsive! My hair looked like a mess for three days afterward! I swear, he uses every product on the store shelves thats Pokemon tested on just to play with me!"**

**Save it for the next speach, Princess N.**


	12. Chapter 11: Hotheads

Chapter 11: *grumble* Hotheads

I sighed, looking around the wraparound porch of the Striaton city gym/cafe. I folded my hands on the ivory lined tabled cloth, flicking at my fork, making it clang into my spoon. Thorn sat next to me, nose stuck in the cafe menu, naming off the most expensive items on the menu for my pure annoyance and his entertainment; needless to say I was ignoring him for the prospect of people watching.

The cafe was bustling at this hour; it was brunch time, a little after noon. Rich kids dressed in their spring best drank bubbly mocktails filled with maraschino cherries and orange slices, while their parents talked about business and drank the real things. Teenage girls giggled over Xtransievers and orange juices, taking minuscule bites of fruit salad laced with whipped cream, their Pokemon rubbing against their ankles. Older couples sat nostalgic at tables from their youth, sharing Nutella crepes and memories from long ago.

_"Ooh, look: walnut waffles, topped with three berry fruit salad, Haban berry syrup, and whipped cream. $13.50_." Thorn grinned from over the velvet-lined lip of the menu, which was only possible thanks to the three telephone books propped up underneath him.

"I don't know..." I mumbled, running the estimated costs of the meal in my head. I sighed, my head sinking down to the table, my forehead pressing against my cold, real silver, silverware. It was too soon after getting up to think about messy math problems right now. It had been another hopelessly sleepless night again, every time I closed my eyes, the nightmares coming on cue. Instead of stubbornly trying to keep going to sleep, I opted to stare at the ceiling all night long, instead of watching dreams, watching shadows cast off from the maple tree outside my open windows dancing off the walls. Thorn hadn't slept much either, laying beside all night long me for silent company. In the daylight now, I could see the lines beneath his eyes had deepened into full blown bags.

_"Ah, ha! What about this: Magicarp caviar laid upon freshly baked French bread, topped with roma tomatoes, house grown basil, and black garlic. $18_."

"Ok, we're back pedaling a bit here!" I slammed my hands down onto the table with a _bang-clang, _making the couple next to us jump in surprise_._ "I don't really think I wanna be here, paying for a fucking five course meal I'm not sure I can even afford, at a fucking café that's supposed to be a gym, where I can't even find one fucking brother out of three fucking gym leaders, and it's really fucking pissing me off!" I growled.

Thorn hardly acknowledged me, giving me a defeated look out of the corner of his crimson eye, black pupil tight and thin. _"Oh hush, you're making a scene with all that cussing. Since it's obviously your time of the month, order yourself something chocolate and grab a box of Advil. Also, it's a four course meal, dummy. They don't serve soup at brunch."_

"UUUUUUUUHHHH-!" I dropped back down into my white wrought iron chair, plopping my butt down on the green, red, and blue padded cushion, my head crashing down into my silverware again, this time sending the dainty butter or dessert or whatever(there were like six of them) spoon flying off the table. I let myself sit there in agitation for a good minute before my head started hurting from being pressed up against my forks, to then I turned my attention to swirling my finger around in the condensation on my water glass, creating intangible shapes absentmindedly. I scanned the porch for any sigh of the gym leaders, seeing only black-dressed waiters and orange-dressed waitresses darting around to attend to their tables.

A perky twenty-something, raven haired waitress brushed over to our table, cardboard order-pad in hand; A sparkly green pen was poised over the pad, ready to write down our orders. "You two ready?" she asked, a slight southern accent in her words.

_"Yes, I would like one of everything. Please and thank you_." Thorn spoke to the waitress, pushing his folded menu into the waitress's hands with a slight nod. She gave him a funny look, turning her questioning green gaze to me. _Oh right, no one else can understand him..._

"Uh, I want an Espresso, and uh... two orange juices... for, er, him..." I pushed my own menu at her; she wrote down our order, then wandered away to attend to another table, picking up a pitcher of southern-style sweet tea on her way over, orange lacy skirt ruffling slightly behind her with her brisk movements.

Thorn gave me the stink eye, mouth puckered like he had eaten a few sour lemons whole. _"I said one of everything.'Orange Juice' is not one of everything. Are you dense? Or are certain bodily cycles throwing you off more than usual?"_ he pouted.

"Well, when we don't have to live on $12, THEN you can order whatever the hell you want. Calm down, and shut up. You're giving me a migraine..." I snapped, reaching around in my pink shoulder bag, rifling through all the random junk that had accumulated over time in my bag, due to my laziness about cleaning it out. I spotted a shiny gleam of white from underneath the turquoise paisley-print daily planner I never bothered to use , reached for it, and retracted my hand from the bag, Panpour's pokeball clutched in my hand.

"Breakfast time, River..."

_"PAN-pancakes?"_ he chirped, appearing in the seat opposite of Thorn, looking just as jolly as he had originally yesterday. The words 'Breakfast Time' bouncing around in his head, he made a grab for the fancy fake fruit flowing out of the table centerpiece. He swiped a vine of fake-colored purple grapes, and a glittery pear, shoving them towards his mouth when a thin vine lashed out from my left field of vision.

One vine rescued the phony fruit; the other whiplashed across River's face, making him shrink back with a shriek. Very calmly, Thorn placed the fruit in the porcelain pedestal in the center of the table, scratching his nose callously with one finger. _"We are in public, dip-stick. Please try to keep your Gluttony in check, and don't eat the fake fruit-it's damaging property and it gives you diarrhea."_ he said coolly.

"Sounds like someone speaks from experience~" I grumbled.

"AAAAAAAARRRRRRREEEEE YYYYOOUUU READY FOR THE TRRRRRRRRRRRRRROUBLESOME TRIO'S SPECIAL TABLE-SIDE, BRUNCH FONDUE EXXXXXTRAAAAVAAAAGAAANZA?!" a voice boomed out like a wrestling MC announcing the fighters for the next match. There was the squealing of ungreased wheels and the clang of metal serving dishes, then a table clothed trolley with three figures hanging precariously off the sides as they whizzed by making all of our heads snap up. All the heads in the room swiveled as the trio swept by, eyes hungry for the bubbly, cheesy delights said to be contained under their serving ware- all we could do at my table was stop and stare.

"AH! Gym leaders!" I cried, flinging myself from my seat into the isle the minute the _'WTF' _sensors stopped beeping in my head , boots stomping on the wooden floor of the porch, causing it to shake slightly. I look off after the fondue cart, hearing the hiss of a grass snake and the confused chirps of a water monkey behind me.

"WWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHOOOO WANTS BRUNCH FONDUE FFFFFIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRSSS SSSSSSTTTT?!" the red haired kid screeched on the right side of the raging cart. He was yelling cheer-leader style through a bright orange megaphone, which strangely complemented his fiery red 'do; it was combed up in swirled red Mohawk of sorts and spiked up on the ends. He was much more boisterous than his counterparts in the trolley, and it was becoming increasingly clear that that was Chili, the fire-type leader of the Striaton City Gym-and it was also becoming increasingly clear as well why the ginger psycho was named after the fiery pepper.

The cart gave a kick as it ran over some fallen silverware, and the much more level-headed, green-haired, Grass-type leader Cilian was moaning "Chili... make it stop! We can always just walk it table-side to table-side like uuuussssssuuuuuaaaaaaallllll lllll!" he yelped as the cart was wrenched into a hard right and swept by the corner of a table dangerously close.

I rug my feet deeper under my stride, getting right behind the cart so close I could smell the delicious five-cheese goo bubbling in their covered pot. I took a nanosecond to lick my lips (the stuff _did_ smell fucking fantastic), which ended with me face planting into the floor, tripping over the silverware the fondue cart had just flattened. I picked my head up shakily, rubbing the center of my forehead where chakra hit spoon. Thorn was at my side in an instant, poking me over for bruises.

_"Of course you trip over silverware for crying out loud. Well when you're done wallowing on the floor in day-old food dust, you may wanna know YOUR GYM BATTLE IS RIDING AWAY ON THE SMELL OF CHEESE!"_

I was up and off again, knocking a surprised Thorn sideways; I took off around the sharp corner the trolley trio had just ascended, entering the right side of the wraparound porch, which to my horror seemed impossibly even more crowded that the other side of the restaurant. The tables here were more closly packed together, forcing me to hike myself up and over corners of tables, leapfrog over various purses and totes, and once or twice having to jump clear over a small child's head, landing a shaky dismount that nearly got me plummeting into the floor again.

"Eh, I'll give that 7.5..."

"No, more like a 6.9..."

"I gave it a 4..."

_"She got a 2.3 from me..."_ Thorn's snide voice joined the other's critiques. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, because I'd know I'd probably take another dive and tumble if I did just outta spite.

I was now in range of the fondue pot again; the trio had ambushed and unsuspecting table and were now loading them up with the full fondue rig. Giving my exhausted self one more kick in the ass, I jumped over a fern in a yellow clay pot and landed squarely behind the ride-shaken trio of gym leaders.

The blue-haired one, Cress I think, jumped backwards, causing the fondue pot on the table to tip over, sending a waterfall of Gouda and Brie and other fancy cheeses down the once stainless ivory table cloth. All three leapt out of the way of the way of screaming hot cheesy river, the scarlet-haired Chili careening back into me and mowing my exhausted me over. I flopped back onto the floor, falling over easy as a domino made out of feathers.

"Ack, sorry little gymnast girl!" Chili yelped after he realized he had knocked me down. Reaching a hand out to me, he waited for me to grab it. I didn't.

I pushed myself to a standing, feeling Thorn wrapping himself around my shoulder, and pointed a shaky exhausted finger at the gym leaders. "I... challenge the... Striaton City gym to a... gym battle... NOW!"

The trio exchanged a strange look; Chili bent forward, stooping down to my height from his slightly-taller-than-me stance, patting me on the head like a Pokémon. "Aw, sorry gymnast girl, we're super busy this morning, and I don't think we'll be doing any gym battles todayyy... it looks like you need a nap more than you need me to hand your Snivy's butt mounted to a plaque and handed to you in a battle..." he said, speaking slowly and carefully like he was addressing a child; his infamous ego dripped from every syllable he spoke.

"Just... battle me... one of you... fucktards…fuck!" I growled, picking his hand off my head and pressing it to his face, rubbing it in good and hard to get my point across. " An a 'nother thing, my Snivy will beat you into submission, you egotistical Simisear. Don't you doubt him for a minute, fire head; he's hell in a hand basket on crack..."

Thorn smiled sweetly from my shoulder as Chili stood aback by my gruffness. "Such language from a young girl-we do have children here-"

"If you think that's bad, then just-"

"Okay, OKAY, calm down now everyone! We have customers to attend too, and I really don't think insults are any way to conv-" the voice of reason, Cilian, started before being forcefully cut off by a fire-headed pig pushed up in my face.

"FINE! If that's the way you want it, then I'll cook you like the Milktank you are, muchkin moo!" Chili spat right up in my face, red eyes as devious as Thorn's.

"Great then, cuz' I'm starin' down a nice fat Sawsbuck right now, and it's hunting season," I sneered back.

"Hmph, I'll fry you like the sorry, worthless Magicarp you are- you won't even get to the fire after I'm done frying you!" he snapped back.

"I'll just crisp ya up like bacon- I like it burned, just like you'll be when I'm through with you!"

"Oh ho, I'm gonna roast you like a Torchick on Christmas-"

"And drown some Skitties while you're at it?!"

"Will you quit with the meat references, please, I'm a vegetarian..." Cress moaned, looking very put out by the conversation.

Chili gave me an incredulous look, "How does that even apply here?!"

I shoved my head further into Chili's, pushing his head back with my forehead "I DON'T KNOW BUT IT SOUNDED RIGHT, and still gonna smother you like a candle with my Panpour! Then I'm taking on Cilan's grass-type, and then Cress's water-type and I will have destroyed you all! Prepare to face Snivy ass-whooping!" I blew some steam out of my nose, backing my head up a bit to headbutt Chili in the face.

He shrunk back for a moment before coming back at me, when Cilian took his stance in between us, arms out to block the attack. There was a small puff of steam as Chili ran full throttle into Cilian's back; Cilian let out a single tear as 126 lbs. of fiery red-head ran headfirst into his back. "I'm quite sorry for this..." he apologized to me a bit sheepishly as the glowing red eyes of Chili appeared over his shoulder, white teeth curled up in a hiss.

"But still, before we throw all rules and regimens to the wind, we need to lay down a few things-" Cilian started, righting himself back up nice and straight, straightening his apron and fluffing his grassy green bowtie before continuing. "First of all, you only take on one Gym leader, unless you have all three basic elemental Pokémon, which it appears you do not. Secondly, the gym leader you face is determined by your starter Pokémon~" He gave Snivy a look out of the corner of his eye.

"And?" I put my hands on my hips, giving the hissing Chili a show of teeth back.

Cilian grabbed the back of Chili's vest, dragging him around and holding him by the scruff of his neck out to me. "That means he's yours-" Chili was released, falling to the floor, landing on his butt, mussing up his pristine white server's apron. Rubbing his tailbone, he glared up from the porch floor to his much taller brother. Chili was about my height or so, maybe 5'9; Cilian was more like 5'11; Cress looked to be 5'10, being the middle brother.

Realizing what he meant, I began to rub my hands together quite deviously,"Hehe... you will taste the sweet watery defeat at the hands of my River, match-stick... oh yes... you will lose..." Thorn beside me grinned at the red-head with hooded eyes, little fangs protruding from his curled lips.

"I'll take you on, and I will win! So if you're so keen to show me how you roll, how about we raise the stakes a bit..." Chili grabbed Cilian's shoulder, yanking him down to our much-shorter level. "I'll take you on with both my Pansear and Cilian's Pansage! Pansear has the advantage over Snivy, and Pansage has the advantage over Panpour, so we will be even!" He grinned, not backing down from the challenge.

"Wait a second, please!" Cilian separated himself from Chili, flicking him on the nose as he continued. "If that were the case, she could just counter you with the opposite Pokémon on her team, and that would be mute point. We should decide the match-ups with a coin toss. It's only fair..."

"So wait, I'm going to be the only on handing the floor, then?!" Cress yelped, realizing where this was going. Cilian nor Chili were paying attention, their eyes focused on me-as they well damn better be, 'cuz I wasn't letting any of them off without a battle.

I shrugged, feeling Thorn ride my shoulder up and down like a wave. "Sure, I don't care," I placed my finger firm in the center of Chili's chest, digging in with my sharp-edged nails that were still ragged from being chomped on in Accumula town the other day. "I just wanna show this here hot-head what a grass-type can really do. Consider yourself warned, fire monkey..."

"Then why don't we raise the stakes once more... with a bet?" He raised his flame-red eyebrows, flamboyant grin firmly on his mug.

I glared at him through slitted eyes. "What kind of bet?"

**OOOOOOOO**

"The gym battle between the gym leader, Chili, and the challenger, Mina, will now begin. This is a two on two battle, the Pokémon match-up decided via coin flip. There are no substitutions for either and the battle is over when all the Pokémon on one side are unable to battle..."

Chili and I stood at opposite ends of the dirt battlefield, white chalky lines separating our two halves of the field. Cilan was acting are referee, standing right down the middle line, looking like one of those proud green flag on a golf course. I tightened my fists, feeling Thorn rooting around in his pokeball, eager to get out and battle, glassy blue eyes staring straight into Chili's flickering fire-colored ones. I had put Thorn into his ball for purely formal reasons- no one had told me otherwise and it just seemed appropriate-it was my first gym battle after all.

"First up is..." _flicling_-Cilian flipped two coins into the air, waiting for them to hit the dirt and reveal fate's decision. "... and the first match-up is... River vs. Pansage!"

I withdrew River's pokeball from my pocket, gripping it in my hand, arm at my waist, waiting. Chili did a similar ritual across the field.

Cilian held his hand up, karate-chop style, high above his head. We waited for his signal; my hand around River's ball began to sweat. This really was _my first gym battler ever! _If I screwed this up now, I'd be a loser for the rest of my life; I was determined not to lose. Professor Juniper had said that there were many paths and opportunities in the world of Pokémon, but battling seemed to fit me the best out of it all, and for me there really was no plan B. _I'll make it work- _I mused reassuringly to myself. _I always have._

"BATTLE…. BEGIN!" down Cilian's hand came, cutting the field in two and letting the floodgates open.

"River, let's go!" I trust my shoulder forcefully forward, sending the ball spinning onto the field.

"Pansage, you're up!"

_"PPAAAN!"_ both elemental monkeys chirped upon entering the field. River blew a light sprinkle of water from the fluffy blue plume on top of his head, normally good-natured grin replaced by the budding of a smirk; Pansage got up unto its rear legs, mouth curled into a commanding grin, standing at the same height as River. They stared down each other competitively.

"River, take the first move! Use Scratch!" I commanded. River's little claws popped out, and he sprung forward, talons translucently rainbow colored in the overhead lights of the gym. They raked across Pansage's head, sending a shower of various green colored leaves to the ground; Pansage clasped the top of its head, looking a bit like a bush that had just been pruned.

"Use Bullet Seed while it's up close Pansage!" Pansage tipped its head back, and threw it forward, spitting yellow-green colored seeds at rapid fire right into River. He went flying back, shielding his face with his hands, all the while the barrage of stinging seeds kept coming.

"Push them back with Water Gun!"I cried. Grunting a bit in exertion, River began to peek his head out from behind his paws, squinting into the seed storm.

_"PAAAAAAAAANNN!"_ River battle cried, sending off a sharp spurt of crystal clear water into the seed storm, pushing them back towards the other side of the field. Pansage leapt to the right, tucking and rolling, somersaulting out of the way.

_"Gotta be faster than that!"_ it giggled mockingly at River.

"Use Scratch, Pansage!"

Pansage was up in River's face in no time, claws taking aim for River's nose.

"Block it with Scratch, River!"

River knocked his claws up against Pansage's, paring the oncoming attack away. _"Gotta be faster than that~"_

"Pansage, use Vine Whip!" Thin, whip-like vines appeared from Pansage's shoulders, bright green against its yellow skin. They lashed out, striking River across the face repeatedly like angry tentacles, sending him skidding back along the ground to my feet. I fell down to my knees, staring right into his half-closed dark blue eyes.

_"I'm sorry... I lost..."_

River was KO'd. I gave the fallen Pokémon a pitying look, reaching dejectedly for its ball as my face turned pessimistic, starting to think about something before an obnoxious outburst from across the field drawing my attention up.

Chili threw his hands up in the air in celebration. "OOOHHH YEAH! I WON! In your face, Snivy girl. WWWOOOO!" he ran around in giddy circles, skipping around like a frickin' five year-old, for crying out loud. I glared at him as I got up, returning the fainted River to his ball all while glaring daggers at Chili.

"Ooooh, don't you wish your Pok-e-mon was HOT like mine?! Don't ya wish your Pok-e-mon was a FREAK like miiiineee-oooooh doncha!" Cilian face palmed at his brother's ridiculous antics as Chili began to sing some ridiculous pop song from like nine years ago, voice high-pitched and off-key making me even more annoyed.

"You can stop the fooling around, right now! I still have my Thorn, so don't think it's over yet!" I snapped at his singing form. I whipped out Thorn's pokeball, "He's nothing to take lightly!" I held it up to it gleamed in the light, the Snivy within cursing at me, wanting to be let out.

_"Hell yeah I'm hot, so lemme out!" _Thorn yowled from the ball.

Chili skipped back to his place behind Pansage, who had been skipping around and twirling in celebration too. "Come at me bro!" he grinned, holding his hands out like that cheesy Jesus pin.

"Thorn, get to it!" I summoned forth my ace, Thorn materializing in front on me to stare down Pansage. They were both grass-types, therefore being completely even in terms of moves. This could be worked to our advantage, but could also be a thorn in our side because we can't use any of our powerful moves to win.

"Thorn, use Wrap!" I yelled, getting right to it.

Thorn darted forth, his lithe body wrapped around Pansage's neck in an instant. He squeezed himself around Pansage tightly, muscles rippling under his pearladesent scales.

Pansage's hands flew to its neck, gasping for breath, claws scratching at Thorn's twisted body. The more he struggled, the harder Thorn constricted. Pansage's grass green eyes were begging for help from Chili, tears leaking out from their corners.

He gritted his teeth. "Try to remove it using Vine Whip!" Chili commanded. Pansage's vines started to struggle through his shoulders, whips quivering in exertion. Pansages eyes flashed, and the vines suddenly curled at an arch over their heads, swiping out with living fury as Thorn finally caught sight of them.

"Thorn, let go! Knock it off balance with your own Vine Whip!" Thorn flung himself off Pansage, rolling on the ground and springing back up, vines at the ready.

Newly freed, Pansage lashed out with his vines, making headway for Thorn. Thorn gracefully spiraled out of the way, landing daintily on his feet before striking out with his vines.

They swept under Pansage, knocking him to the ground, kicking up a little dust cloud. Then Thorn was at him again, picking him up and tossing him over him shoulder, pulling the same move he had performed on Tepig the first day I had met him; Pansage landed with his face rubbing into the ground, completely fainted.

"Pansage it unable to battle. The match goes to the challenger!"

"Oh yeah!" I screamed, running forward and giving Thorn a high five. He slapped his hand against mine, then turned and crossed his arms smugly, addressing Chili, eyes glittering with cruelty.

_"Hell in a hand basket on crack AND steroids, matchstick monkey_..." He smirked. Chili gave him a look, not being able to understand him, but seemed to get the jest that he was being smack-talked too.

"Don't Thinks it's over just yet, grass snake! I still have my ace...Pansear, I choose you!" Chili howled, throwing his pokeball forcefully into the dirt. It smacked into the ground, sent up some dust, rolled a bit, the stood still. No Pokémon came out.

Chili gritted his teeth as the sound of Thorn and I's laughter echoed from the other side of the court. Grumbling, he picked up the ball and stood again.

"STOP LAUGHING! I was just testing to see how ready you were! Prepare to burn, living weed!" Chili growled, throwing his ball again, seemingly right at my face. It came jetting through the air like it was on a missile; I ducked my head forward, letting it sail over my head and into the brick wall behind me, landing with a _crack!_ I began to laugh harder as Chili's hair seemed to grown like a flaming fire, being heated up by embarrassment.

"Wow, anger issues much matchstick monkey?" Thorn and I giggled, saying it at the same time.

I wobbled over giggling to the ball behind me, and pressed the button to release it with my toe. Blue light struck out, and another elemental monkey began to form, starting with the fire-tipped head, all the way down to the stamping red feet. Pansear appeared, stamping his feet as angrily as its trainer, looking around like it wanted to kill. _Seems like it heard us making fun of it- _I thought with a mild smirk on my face.

Hiking my leg back, I kicked the ball back over to Chili, watching it roll into his black booted feet, loving the look of hateful contempt on his face, lips pooched out in a pout, forehead sinking forward in angry sagging lines. I grinned toothily back at him "You're welcome-"

"EEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRR! Pansear, use Incinerate!" Chili screamed, anger finally boiling over.

At this close of a range, Pansear had no problem aiming and firing at Thorn; fast, hot plumes of fire shot from its mouth, and scorched Thorn at point-blank range. Thorn doubled over, grasping at his chest, coughing.

For a moment, all we could hear was Thorn's rough, cringe-inducing cough as he tried to breathe through his fire singed airways. He gave rigid shutter, coughing up pasty burned blood; He gave rigid shutter, coughing up pasty burned blood; my stomach lurched at the sight of his burned blood, and I had to look away. Thorn gave one more heart-wrenching couch and looked up, red eyes glowing, mouth drawn up in a smirk.

_"If that's the best you got, then you ain't worthy enough to call yourself a fire-type"_

I grinned. Thorn's incomparable pride was making him smack talk to a fire-type right in its face. Thorn began picking himself up and I felt the bile that had rose up in my throat draining back down to my stomach where it belonged. _I wonder what he's got in mind for the battle…_ I mused with a raised eyebrow.

"Thorn, use leer!""

_"With pleasure…"_ from his doubled over position, Thorn's eyes glowed red and menacing at Pansear, making it recoil in surprise. I saw an opening and I went for it.

"Use Tackle!" Thorn pushed himself to his feet, then darted forward swiftly as a bullet, running into Pansear's waist, and tackling it to the ground. Thorn sped way, back to our side of the field, trying to get out of range for Pansear's next attack.

"Pansear, use Lick!" Thorn was licked upside the head, making him fall backward in disgust. He was frozen for a moment with_ 'WTF'_ on his face, but quickly recovered and before Pansear could retract its tongue, he latched onto it with one clawed hand.

"Ahh! Thorn!" I yelled surprised as he went flying with the tongue back to Pansear. He looked over his should briefly before being pulled right in front of Pansear, who looked very peeved to have his tongue stepped upon. "Thorn, use Tackle!"

Thorn leapt up high, slamming himself down on Pansear's head on an effort for a KO, but shrieked loud when he came in contact with the fire monkey's tuffty red fur. Still shrieking, he jumped away, gazing in horror at the new burn forming on his chest. He hunched over, fingering the blistered pale yellow skin tenderly.

"HAHAHA!" Chili laughed superiorly from the other side of the field. He pointed a finger at me, aiming right for my chest. "I bettca didn't know that when Pansear gets angry, the fire in its fur can get up to 600 degrees! When your Snivy made contact with the fire, Pansear heated it up and burned him! Now you're at even more of a disadvantage!" he laughed maniacally like an old cartoon villain that had just revealed his grand master plan and was now feeding the hero to a tank of hungry Sharpedo.

I gritted my teeth. Thorn wasn't doing so well, and a burn on top of it wasn't going to help. If what Chili said about Pansear's head being hot enough to cause a burn, then we were going to need to put it out somehow. I glance at Thorn, whose tail was standing on end, all his cheekiness gone. His eyes screamed murder, and if looks could kill, I think everyone within a five-mile radius would have dropped dead by now. Pondering his tempersome personality, I got an idea.

"Thorn, suck on your mouth a bunch! Get some spit and stuff in your throat!"

He gave me a bizarre look, but did as I commanded, and began making hacking sounds and he hacked…. well whatever he had up. His eyes were tight with the pain of having to push things through his burnt throat, but kept coughing away. Chili doubled over, clutching his sides.

"That's your grand plan? To hack blood all over me? Seriously? I expected you to put up a fight as tough as your trash talk, midget moo, but I was wrong! Pansear, finish this with Fury Swipes!"

Pansear extended its claws, which were horrifyingly longer than Pansage's had been. The reached from Pansear's hand all the way to just above the ground, and they were a dirty yellow instead of translucent. They were dirty and devious looking and Pansear knew it; it took its time reaching Thorn, who was still hocking up stuff in his throat. Pansear towered over Thorn, claws raised and red eyes evil. Thorn just stared back, eyes equally as evil and mouth curled around all the spit and stuff harbored in his throat.

"Do it, Pansear!" the claws flash once, then struck.

"Thorn spit it all out! Aim for its head!"

Thorn puckered his mouth, then pushed forward and hocked the biggest mother-bucking lugie right into Pansear's immaculate red fur. I only caught a glimpse of it, but said offensive spit ball was comprised of everything from burned blood, to throat skin bits, and snot, and gooey Snivy spit. Thorn's aim was true, and it smothered Pansear's head. Pansear cried, its turn to shrink back in disgust. Its hands flew to its head, rubbing frantically to get the offensive material off its fur. I paused for a moment before continuing flicking away Thorn's throat stuff, and I smiled as my plan began to fall into place.

"You see what I did there, Chili? I had Thorn spit all over its head to cool it down more, then Pansear cooled its head down itself so it could touch it and get that stuff off its head!" I grinned triumphantly at the red-haired gym leader, my hand pointed at his chest now.

He was in total shock, looking totally flabbergasted and ridiculous with his mouth hanging open so wide I think he could swallow a Jellicent. Or at least a big nugget.

"Thorn, end this for real now! Tackle!"

Thorn smirked as he rammed into the disgruntled fire monkey, sending him plummeting to the ground; Thorn stood over him, standing on his chest triumphant. He spat a wad of gluey blood to the side, spitting it like a country boy after a good day.

Pansear had totally fainted.

Chili stamped his feet in frustration. "I can't believe I lost!" he screeched.

I went over to my grass warrior, picking him up and helping him to the top of my head. "You know what comes next," I grinned devilishly.

**OOOOOOOO**

He sighed."A bets a bet…" Chili mumbled, looking at the punishment of choice set before him with a smothered frown.

We all were in the Café's kitchen, crowded around a ceramic-tiled island decorated with images of twirling vines, fresh-looking waterfalls, and flickering flame bursts running down its gleaming sides. Cilian and Cress were on the same side as me, glancing over uncertainty at Chili across the island from us as he stared helpless into the shallow dish and bag of crinkly red objects set before him.

Thorn sat on the island, wanting the best view of what was about to transpire. He was grinning smugly between the disgruntled Chili and his dumbstruck brothers, taking turns sucking on the top of a sitrus berry popsicle and spritzing burn heal down his red-lined throat. Bunching up the plastic wrapper the popsicle had come in, he curve-balled it right into the side of Chili's head, to which it landed in the ceramic dish in front of him, getting him a firey hiss from the red-head in return as I ripped the plastic wrapping from the dish and drug it over Chili's nose.

"Well, get to it. You were the one after all to propose a bet, matchstick-monkey. Now it's time to live up to your words," I smiled, pushing the disk closer to Chili. He gulped.

"Fine, let's get it over with…" he pulled one of the deep maroon objects from the bag, ran it through the dish's contents, lifting it to his mouth with his eyes tightly closed. His eyes sprung wide almost instantly with surprise the second it touched his mouth, as he began to dance like a Torchick, running around, arms flapping and eyes bulging as he did a very good impression of the Harlem Shake seizure dancing.

Thorn and I doubled over laughing, slamming out fists into the island with evil delight as the tard ran around in circles, arms flailing. What Chili had just sucked down had been a Ghost Chili, the hottest known chili pepper in the entire fucking world. For kickers, he had also drug it though Ghost Chili hot sauce, the contents of the dish, before shoving it in his mouth. This was exactly the bet Chili had proposed an hour ago: Loser had to eat the Ghost Chilies that had just came in from outta country (the stuff was so lethal it couldn't even be grown in Unova legally), dunked in Ghost pepper hot sauce.

Finally, Chili settled down, returning to the island. He coolly placed his elbow on the tile, grinning at me with red-tinged lips and a quivering face. "Piece of cake. No problem."

I clenched my fist. This was supposed to be a punishment, and here he was, still playing it up, the cheeky bastard. "Well, I'm not going to let you beat me at this! Gimme a pepper. The BIGGEST one!" I snapped. Chili happily obeyed, shoving a pepper the size of my fist at me. I snatched from his fingers, bathed it in the sauce, and shoved it into my pie hole.

I blinked, my mind trying to resister what the hell I had just put in my mouth; it seemed almost confused on how to react, though I did have a pretty good idea of what would not work for this situation. Searing agonizing crippling pain would be an understatement. 'Ow' does not fit the bill. I don't think 'Bloody Fucking Arceus' would even suffice- but to my credit, at least I didn't go running around like a freak.

I swallowed the coal hot lump, swallowing some of my pride along with it, it tearing through the lining of my throat like a hot sword through a tissue. I gulped the ragged bundle, turning to face down with Chili, my face I'm quite sure was just as red as his own. "Now what, hot head. That was too easy-" My words shook a bit as sweat began to gather around my scorched neck.

"Well, watch this-!" Chili grabbed the bottle of chili sauce off the counter, then proceeded to start gulping it straight. He reached into the bag, ripping out a few peppers then throwing them into his mouth.

"We'll see about that! I'm not going to be out done!" I reached for the hot sauce bottle, wrenching it out of his hands and began chugging it myself.

Cilian and Cress behind us were gasping and pleading, talking about 'wasting product' and 'egotistical bets'. To be honest, I wasn't listening.

Thorn was laughing even louder now; through his coughing giggles, he croaked in a burned-sounding voice, "Somhoudby geth me a reddullh, thth is too interhanin' to lheath!"

* * *

**Hello people of the internet/fanfiction. Pokegirl and N here...**

**N-"Thorn's still gone" *clap* "Yay"**

**Your mutual dislike of each other is so cute.**

**N-*Blush***

**So Mina won her first ever gym badge! And Thorn got beat up some more( and hacked up a pretty epic lugie)! Oh, on that note, I'd love to hear from you, the readers, how I'm doing with battle scenes and what-not. I've read a bunch of other people's stuff, and we all do battles differently, so I just wanna know how I do/ what I could do better. PLEASE HELP ME BY REVIEWING!**

**Anyways, next time, Mina goes to the doctor and Thorn confesses what strange diet he's been on for the past three days!**

**Mina-"You make it sound like I'm going to a therapist or the vet for shots"**

**N-"Well you have bitten me before... I really don't know what you might have..."**

**Mina-"I will sic Thorn on you, hippie boy!"**

**Ok, cool it you too. You can make out later, just don't destroy my end segment... like Thorn does...*sniffle***

**Mina and N-"Whatever... wait don't cry..."**

***WWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH H***

**Mina-"Please don't cry, he's just in the next studio over..."**

**"N-"and thats all for now internet inhibitors. Keep reading and reviewing... oh Pokegirl, please don't cry..."**


	13. Chapter 12: Dream Doctor

Chapter 12: Dream Doctor

_The dream was different this time._

_ I wasn't in the garden with the mysterious rose bud; I was at the foot of a tree. It had a thick trunk, the color of a brownie, but with a bit of a duller hue. Branches stretched out in all directions, twisting and turning their way into the sky; there actually was a sky in this version of the dream. A sudden gust of wind ruffled through the landscape, sending the reddish-pink leaves of the magnificent tree swirling to the ground. I caught one in my hand, feeling its texture; it felt like a real leaf, just like Thorn's tail. Around the base of the tree were beautiful white flowers, vast white in color but had a seemingly dark aura around them. They stretched like a vine around the entire base of the tree. _

_"The Darkwood tree…"_

_The voice was gentle, ruffling the landscape like the breeze blowing petals off a flower. There was a hint of nostalgic longing echoing in the voice. It sounded sad, like the memories here were ones of both pleasure and pain._

_The name of the tree captivated me. It suited the tree's physic quite well, the bark being a rich, muted dark brown. I was running my hand over the surprisingly smooth surface of the trunk, when the sudden note of a flute pulled me away from the magnificent tree. It seemed to be coming from around the tree. I peered around the trunk._

_I saw no mysterious flute player. I only saw a glistening lake. The surface rippled slightly, like it had been agitated. I padded carefully over to it, minding the silvery-colored sharp rocks embedded in the shore's surface. At the water's edge, the glistening lake shined all different colors, ranging from baby blue to bright pink and sunset gold. These brilliant colors were so unnatural I found them hypnotizing. The lake __lapped at the golden shore lightly. I flicked at its surface, making a spray of water droplets glisten in the light of the sun._

_Other than the tree, there was nothing else in the clearing but the lake. The lake curved to form a sort-of 'U' shape, sweeping around three sides of the tree. Thick foliage boarded the rest of the clearing, hanging around the edges of it like they wanted to be invited in, but were too polite to say so. The only breaks in the trees were five paths heading off in diagonal directions into the forest; I couldn't see where they went._

_I turned to look into the lake again, and was shocked to see a face in it. The face seemed to just be a reflection on the surface, but the shadows under the ripples seemed to say otherwise. I leaned closer, captivated by its beauty: it was a girl, no more than eighteen. She had long, silver-grey hair that swirled around her in the water with her. She was dressed in a simple white dress, it was sleeveless and long, dancing around her floating ankles, which I could now see suspended under her in the shadowy water. I began to panic. Was she drowning? Had she drowned? Was she alive?_

_Her expression was soft, despite the situation. Very slowly, she began to move, lifting her hand up, breaking through the surface of the water in an almost dream-like motion. I realized she was carrying something; it caught under the water as she lifted it up and into the sunlight, letting it catch the light majestically._

_It was another flower. I had never seen one such as this before in all my life, reality or dream-wise. It looked a bit like a lotus blossom, but also looked a bit like a water lily. It had ice-colored petals that darkened as they lead down to the center of the plant, darkening into a sky blue, then a cerulean, then the most stunning dark blue that you'd imagine an underwater cave would be colored. The mysterious girl lifted it higher into the air, until it was right in front of my face, only the stunning flower and her pale arm breaking through the water's surface. No ripples emanated from her movements._

_I reached forward tensely, afraid of what might happen. The dream always fell apart whenever I got close to seeing or touching something someone doesn't want me seeing. I stroked it petals with my fingers before actually picking up the flower. Water dripped off its petals, shining like liquid rainbows in the sun as they fell._

_Two hands were around my neck. I gasped, eyes bugging out to see the girl had fully risen from the water, eyes still closed, and had her snow-pale hands wrapped around my throat. She was squeezing hard, cutting off the air from entering my lungs. I threw the flower down and pushed hard against the girl, trying to force her from me. She didn't budge. She began to change forms through, pale arms and hands becoming a shadowy purple color, her fingertips becoming lengthy claws that dug into my dream self's skin.__The body thinned out to a form that was grotesquely skinny figure, with wide, boney hips that ended in a point where the stomach should have been, but only went straight up into a skeletal rib cage. It had pointed ears and a strangely Purrloin-esk face. _

_My heart pumped faster, my legs thrashed, I wriggled this way and that in an attempt to escape the clutches of this shadowy creature. I pulled and kicked, and still it squeezed tighter. Fear, in addition to the hands around my neck, kept me from swallowing or breathing._

_For some reason, I knew if I didn't escape, I would die, right here in my dream, never to wake again._

_With the last of the strength my air-deprived body could sum up, I lifted my arm and slammed my fist right into the nose of the shadowy attacker. It recoiled hissing… _

And then I realized I was no longer in the dream, and the hissing was real.

Eyes open wide with fright, I looked around the dark Pokémon Center room, looking for the source of the ragefull hissing. I saw Thorn on the floor, head raised up to the moonlight, his lips curled in a spitting hiss. I must have punched him off the bed when I lashed out at the shadow creature.

_"What the hell is the matter with you?! You punched me off the bed for no reason and I was just about asleep too, you ignorant child!" _Thorn hissed, deep and guttural, from the back of his throat.

I flung myself to the floor, landing on my knees in front of Thorn. "I'm so sorry Thorn! It was that stupid dream again, only this time it was different, there was a lake and a tree and a flu-"

_"You know what? I don't care anymore. If that dreams what keeps both of us up all night, either go to the doctor and get your freaky self checked out or stop taking drugs. I'm done with this all!" _he hissed right up in my face, flinging spittle all over my nose. He backed away, red eyes hunched in anger, his hunting-mode sized pupils barely visible through his tightly clenched eyes. He slithered over to the nightstand, jumping up and picking up the room key off the smooth surface. He then turned, and stormed his way to the door.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?!" I shouted after him, angry for being blown off and him leaving without any consent. He hadn't accepted my apology, and that also worried me.

He turned and gazed coldly over his shoulder _"I'm going to go get some Red Bull and some sugar so I can go watch infomercials in the lobby while you can dream spaz on your own up here. I'll be back whenever I feel like it." _Using a vine, he unlocked the door, slipped through it, and slammed it without another word, effectively ending the conversation. There was a rusty sounding click, and the sound of the door locking was heard.

"UUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed, falling back and onto my butt. I ran my hands through my hair agitatedly. What was I going to do? Me nor Thorn could take much more of this sleepless-in-Unova business. His words bounced around in my head: _"… go to a doctor and get your freaky self checked out or stop doing drugs…"_

I was struck with an 'Ah-Hah!' moment. I smiled in the dreary darkness. I knew who I could talk to.

**OOOOOOOOO**

"Well, Mina! This is certainly a surprise!" a blossom-eyed Professor Fennel greeted me. She opened the door to her lap wider, ushering me and a very cranky Thorn in. We walked into her earthy-smelling lab, inhaling the incense; it was Magnolia Blossom.

About an hour ago, I had came from my room after taking a shower, heading down the stairs and into the lobby in search of my missing partner. I found him, wide-eyed and a bit psychotic looking, in front of the TV, perched on a deep blue lobby bench. Half-drunk and crumpled cans of Red Bull were littered about Thorn's area, as well as several empty Pop Rocks bags.

When I poked his shoulder, Thorn twitched a bit, but didn't respond. I took up the ever reliable of standing up in front of a person and jumping up and down and flinging my arms around, but to no avail. Thorn just stood blankly ahead, muttering "_Academy Records everywhere…" _and _"Op op op op… Oppan Gungnam Style… EH sexy Lilligant"_

What finally pried him away from the screen was a bucket of carrot scraps from the Pokecenter cooks making carrot cake, mixed together with a bucket-full of fresh ice, which I had dumped over his head simultaneously. Thorn had come back ready quick after that, spring from his frozen position and sprinting around the room like he was under attack. I tossed the bucket to the ground, which bounced with an annoying _clack _and startled Thorn from his fit.

He rubbed his baggy eyes, yawning wide enough to fit my head in his mouth _"Oh, it just you… wait are these carrots?" _he hissed throwing one in my direction. We then proceeded to argue for the entertainment of all present until I finally just scooped him up and carried him hostage to Fennel's lab.

Thus bringing us up to current time.

"Actually, I have something I want you to check over for me… something relating to some weird dreams I've been having…" I asked, dipping my spoon in the cup of orange tea Fennel had placed in front of me to stir around the sugar within. I watched it swirl round and round like a vertex, listening for Fennel's response.

"Hmmm… what would that be?" Fennel asked, sitting down next to me, across from Thorn. I didn't blame her for choosing the farthest seat away. She folded her hands "So why don't you tell me what's been going on?" her eyes shined with the quest for knowledge all scientists have.

Stirring me tea, I told her of the dreams I'd been having for the past three days, starting with the strange field and the mysterious rose bud and the dancing Pokémon-shaped shadows, ending with the clearing, the lake, and the girl from last night. She looked straight at my face for the duration of my explanation, and I could almost see the wheels turning in her head.

"And then I kinda sorta punched it, and the dream broke…" I concluded. I finally took a sip of my tea; it had gone cold from my constant stirring. Thorn took a swig of his tea as well, making a disgusted face.

_"It's gone cold, stupid woman, you obviously didn't heat it to the right temperature. You don't even have honey, all you have is Splenda crap, and on top of that, it's citrus. I hate citrus. Oranges make me feel weird" _Thorn hissed, turning over his cup on the striped rug underneath the table where we sat. He then tossed the cup on the ground for good measure; it rolled on its side off the carpet, spinning into wall, then proceeding to roll over to the stairs, and roll down them. A tiny porcelain noise came from the stair well, sounding exactly like and eggshell being crushed. I shot Thorn a look, which in reply he just shrugged his shoulders.

"A-ah well…" Fennel began, stuttering a bit, looking a bit afraid of Thorn at the time being. "The dreams could be connected to a memory of some sort, or something you could have read to seen…" she tapped her fingers on the table, mind churning with the new information it had just been given.

I shrugged "I've never seen any of these places before; I mean I've never been out of the region. And a giant rose bud? I've never heard of a legend or story telling about that before…" I rested my chin in my hand. Maybe Thorn really had finally just made me go off the deep end.

Fennel stood up. "Well than this calls for some experimentation then! If you have no ideas where these dreams came from, then maybe we can find out otherwise…" She _clickly-clicked _over to her desk in her heels, which were a deep purple to match her hair, and tapped a few keys on the keyboard. She gestured to the hospital bed with the dream machine hooked up to its back. "If you don't mind, maybe we could run some tests. You know, to see what we can dismiss off the back."

I got up and sat down on the bed, making it squeak softly. It was a lot more comfortable than it looked, the mattress being nice a plushy, with a hint of firmness, and the pillows were nice and fluffy, with freshly washed pillow cases and everything. I settled back against it, stretching my long legs out, remarking on how it felt so similar to my own bed at home. Fennel came over with her clip board, which had a sideways stack of sticky notes stuck to the center of it. _Well, sometimes you just gotta make do…_

_"Ghetto clip board" _Thorn snickered.

"Well, I guess you've already answered the first question about how long you've been having the dreams. And what they were about… oh and if they were familiar to you or not… ooohhh you already answered if there was more than one dream with similar events… and if the dream seemed to relate to something important…. And how its affected you…" purple written-on sticky notes went tumbling to the floor as Fennel made her way down the list of things I had already answered. The notes fell lazily to the ground; I crushed one with my foot, rolling my eyes at Fennel.

"AH! Here we are! 'Possible real-life causes that probably mean you don't have to go to a psychiatrist'! OK first question: are you taking drugs of any type?" Fennel peered over the top of the clip board, looking a bit like a child who had just asked 'The Question'

On the other side of the room Thorn snickered _"I told you to get off the Meth, duck face." _I realized that I had pressed my lips together, forming a Ducklett bill.

"So, drugs of any kind? Hallucinogens? Marijuana? Injections? Crack? Inhalants Heroin? Cocaine? Depressants? Fentanyl? Over the counter medicine? Sugar? LSD's? Ketamine? Opium? Steroids? Highlighters?" Fennel leaned closer and closer with each example, and was now nose to nose with me.

"Uh… no" I said, pushing her nose away with one finger. She looked at me with raised eyebrows, tapping her pen against the side of her chip board.

"Now, you must be honest with me. Many types of hallucinogens can affect sleep. Do I need to name them all off again?"

Thorn laughed from table again. This time he was stripping a poor orange flower of its leaves. _"I think she's telling the truth on his one, witch doctor. If she had any drugs, I would've gotten my hands on them a long time ago" _he snorted.

Fennel sighed, looking between the two of us. "Please, tell me what he said. I don't like being taunted by something less than half my size…" she stuck her lip out.

"He said I'm clean" I said, leaning back against the trio of pillows behind me.

"Oh, OK Fennel smiled, all bright and sunny again. "Next question, are you aware you might just have an over active imagination?" She looked at me, her head cocked to the side.

"Huh?"

_"She's got the creativity of a brick"_

Fennel pushed her glasses higher on her nose "A good imagination can lead to interesting dreams. Why for instance, when I was a child, I had a friend who was actually a can of Pokémon repel! He hunted ghost types, kinda like the Ghost Busters, and wielded a poison mushroom as his weapon! One time…"

And she proceeded to tell about the various dreams she had had with this can of Pokémon repel, when they found a hole in the space-time continuum and discovered a new element, pomegranates, and when they helped write a song with Pitbull, and also when showed up to school one time both wearing pig tails and the same ugly dress. All I could do is watch with my mouth hanging open as many, MANY, brain cells rolled over and died at the sheer strangeness of the situation.

Thorn grasped the bridge of his nose as Fennel began to go over the Pokémon repel's obsession with bathing in scrambled eggs. Then he snapped. Flinging himself to the ground, he raced across the room in a blur of green and angry, twisted himself up Fennel's body. He ran his face right into her's, smashing his nose up against her's. _"Get to the point already. I've been living on Red Bull and Pop Rocks for the past three days. I want to sleep, dammit! Fix her already or you will wish I was just a bad dream" _he hissed, looking like he meant every word he said.

He detached himself from Fennel, and came over and flopped on the bed next to my feet. He curled up in a Snivy-ball, resting his head underneath my feet. Fennel sniffled a bit, then righted her glasses, which had been knocked askew by Thorn suctioning himself to her face. "Well… I guess we can start testing now…" she sniffled and walked back over to the computer. She tapped on buttons and the machine attached behind me began to whir to life.

I poked Thorn with a toe "Oh my Archeus, thank you. I thought my brain would start melting out my ears with all the…. Fluffiness…" I shivered. Thorn ruffled a bit like a plant in the breeze, rustling his leafy tail and scales.

_"I'm not the only one who needs sleep. You need to sleep to tend to me. And yes, my brain was rotting away as well" _

I smiled at the backhanded reasons, but sensed his sincerity. I reached out to pet him, when a goofy metal cap was placed down on my head. Fennel secured it with a few thick beige straps; the cap was just like one of those cheesy ones from cartoons, complete with multiple light bulbs in various colors and lots of shiny metal bits.

"Let's just get you hooked up here…" she pulled the last buckle taught under my chin, then batted the helmet smiling "All you're going to have to do is go to sleep. The machine will do the work. I'll wake you up in about fifteen minutes so you can hear the findings." She backed away, carefully lifting Thorn by the tail out from under my feet and setting him on the ground. She gave me a reassuring smile "You have no need to worry, it'll be fine. I'll take care of you"

Her gentle tone made me calm down; I settled back against the pillows. I rested my hands on my chest "So just go to sleep?"

Fennel clicked the lights. "Yup. The sensors on the machine will tell me when you're asleep. Just relax and all will be fine" Her purple eyes were deep and bottomless in the darkness. Thorn stood at the foot of the bed, red eyes glowing in the dim light.

I sucked in a deep breath, inhaling the incense and tea that scented Fennel's lab. I fell into a dream…

**OOOOOOOOO**

_"Why did you betray us?" a voice whispered._

_I wasn't in the forest with the lake and the girl with the silver hair. I wasn't in the field with the ruby red rose bud that kept its secrets inside its petals. I was in a field. It stretched far into the darkness, a shadowy aura clouding the air and making it hard to breath. The air smelled like damp dirt and death. _

_Strange lumpy forms lay on the ground all around me. At first I thought they were rock formations. Upon closer inspection, I made a horrifying discovery._

_They were bodies. _

_Purple petals were strewn lazily over them, almost like they were resting on the bodies. I peered a bit closer, and found the body I was standing over was a human's. He had long dusky brown hair that fell to his shoulders, and he looked to be about eighteen or nineteen. His throat was cut. He had bled out._

_In addition to the brown haired young man's corpse, two others were in the field. The other two were female. One had fiery orange hair like the sun and a tattoo of fire swirling up her right arm, the orange and red flames dancing around her wrist, up to her elbow, and curling around her shoulder blade peeking out from around her one-sleeved sari-style dress. The other one also had a tattoo, in the same places as the sun-haired girl; it was deep purple like the petals scattered around on the bodies. Thick-looking, glossy liquid dripped down her arm as her tattoo, collecting in a large twilight-colored droplet on the inside of her wrist. Her braided hair was dusty blond, the color of bleached sand. Both of their throats were slit._

_I noticed the boy also had a tattoo just the like the girls did. His was black and white, the upper half of his arm decorated with white flower petals and swirling patterns of strange characters. The bottom half, stretching all the way to his fingers, was inked pitch black, with breaks in the darkness for small black versions of the symbols on the upper parts of his arms and a small black face etched into the inside of his forearm. The face was pointed and skeletal, with pointy ears and oval gem-like thing in the center of its forehead. The face looked familiar._

_"Why, why, why, why, why?!" The voice said again, louder this time. The way the voice was catching in its speaker's throat revealed that it was crying. _

_I looked around for the voice, but all I saw was tall beige grass in the moonlight; the grass came up to my chest. I stepped over the boy's body carefully as to not step on him, you know, just in case he was a zombie playing dead and was going to jump up and eat me any second. I pushed into the grass, growing closer to the orange haired girl's body, which was the furthest away from me. I stepped over the blond girl's tanned arm and I was able to see who the voice belonged to. _

_It was the silver haired girl from the dream with the lake, only this time she was very much alive and crying, tears dripping from her deep black eyes. She had sunk to her knees, leaning forward, her tears falling to the earth. Her glossy hair shone bright in the moonlight, seeming almost to glow. Like the others, she also had a tattoo I had missed before. This one inked in many shades of blue, swirling around her arm like waves. Icy blue foam rode on the tips of the crystal blue waves, which slowly darkened to a deep blue like the color of an Oran berry. She wore a sari-style dress too, different from the simple white one I saw her wearing in the lake. It was the same color as her tattoo, and was loose around her rail thin frame, save for her slightly round stomach._

_"WHY?!" she wailed again, falling forward to the ground, her finger's clutched around something. I drew closer to her, trying to get within range so I could reach out to her. I reached for her silvery head, making contact; I recoiled when a burst of energy rushed through me like static. I kneeled down, trying to see her face._

_"Hey, are you OK What happened here?" I asked, daring to reach out and touch her face. Again I was jolted back by force field around the girl. I retracted my hand, folding my legs under me to sit Indian-style. I didn't touch her; I only looked on at the heartbroken girl._

_She sniffled, looking up from the ground and the bodies of her friends. She slowly lifted the item she had clutched in her grasp up and into the moonlight. It was a flute; it was carved simply, with little embellishments other than four flowers etched at the front end of the flute. It was made from a deep colored, dull brown. I racked my brain for how it seemed so familiar._

_She lifted the flute to her lips, and began to play it softly. Her fingers flew expertly over the holes, keeping in time with a melody only she knew. Tears kept running down her cheeks, but she kept playing, blowing harder so the notes echoed louder in the darkness. The notes of the flute sounded exactly like the flute I had heard in the dream by the lake._

_"You called?" a gentle voice asked from behind._

_I sucked in a tight breath. This had to be when the dream would shatter: right before I see something that might answer my questions. The silver-haired girl looked up in a flurry of moon-colored hair and rainbow tears, leaping into the arms into the one behind us._

_I sucked in a breath, and slowly turned around, creaking slightly like the girl in the horror movie when she's turning around to see the knife-wielding murder. I caught a quick glimpse of the figure, then I was pinned to the ground._

_ I shrieked loudly, trying to wrench myself away from what was keeping me from moving, but the unseen force held on tight. I felt something being ripped off my head, and I started shrieking louder. I wriggled and squirmed and still the force wouldn't let go. I screamed out in pain as the pressure on my head worsened. Something hard latched on, increasing the pain another level._

_Then like that it was gone, and once again I was dragged into a deep void where nothing made a sound and the walls were white._

**OOOOOOOOO**

"Mina! Mina! MINA! Wake up! Please wake up!"

"Huh? What? "I mumbled groggily, the deep feeling of being drug into nothingness still lingering. I realized I didn't feel the straps of the helmet under my chin anymore; but I did feel the weight of something being clamped on to me head. I looked up and was greeted by a soft _"Mmmuuuuuu…"_

There was a Munna on my head.

It chewed happily on my hat, little dime-shaped eyes closed up in happiness. I reached up to stroke it, and it wiggled its butt a bit as I rubbed it's head, er body, er head… no… well… whatever you could call it. It had been the thing I felt clamp down in me before being dragged out of the dream.

Fennel stood over me, eyes wide with fright; Thorn was perched on her shoulder, his eyes equally wide. Fennel reached forward, running her hands over my cheeks and feeling my forehead, frantically searching for any hint of physical harm.

"Archeus above you're safe. You started screaming after we started getting some really odd reading and we started to worry." She reached up to her shoulder, pulling Thorn off it and handing him to me in my lap. "He was running around, scared as sin after he saw the dream waves we were receiving."

I stroked Thorn's head, happy to be back in the real world where at least I knew what was going on and dead bodies with strange tattoos don't exist. "What exactly…. Happened?" I asked, pulling on Thorn's tail a bit. He didn't retaliate, only leaning back exhausted against my stomach. I let him lay there while I listened to Fennel.

"Well, at first, the dream waves were normal. I mean normal like they were coming from your subconscious like normal dreams do. Then you started moving, asking if someone was alright and moving your arms up and down. Then there seemed to be new signals coming from you dream…" she walked over to the screen for the dream machine behind me. She brought up a lime colored gridded window, displaying a rugged looking graph. She pointed at the lowest point on the graph, which stretched the length of several minutes "This is where we were receiving normal dream waves from you, and as you can see it went on for some time… but then here…" she smacked the next highest point on the graph "The waves doubled, and started receiving more than one continuous dream wave. You were emitting two dream waves at a time, which is highly unusual, unless you either on drugs…"

Both Thorn and I rose up on that one "I told you, I'm clean!"

"or your dreams are being altered by and outside force." Fennel pointed to the highest point on the graph, whose two intertwining lines struck high above the others "This was right before I put Munna on your head, when both dream ways amplified, one seeming to try to revert to normal, the other pushing even higher. Munna then ate your dream, nullifying both competing waves and waking you up."

I took a minute to let this all settle in. "So what are you saying? What's changing my dreams?" I leaned forward.

Fennel rubbed her chin for a moment, composing a theory "All I can come up with is that it's being manipulated by a very strong outside force, almost like the power of a Pokémon…"

Bianca words hit the walls on my brain again _'it's almost like your part Pokémon…'_

"The strange thing is that it's unlike anything I've ever seen. Even when a person's dreams are under the influence of a Munna, two dream waves don't appear then. Munna can tap into your subconscious and work your dreams through that, in sense becoming one with your mind. But this… this needs more research…" Fennel walked over to her computer and began typing furiously.

"So is the dream going to keep coming back?" I asked tensely. I reached up, putting my hands on either side of the Munna. There was a suction cup like _pop _and Munna was off my head. I released it, letting it float into the air.

_"Mu!"_

Fennel shook her head, eyes still on the computer screen "Munna was on your head long enough to fully extract all your subconscious dream waves. Since the interfering dreams seem to be latching on to the normal dream waves of the subconscious, I don't think you'll be having any more nightmares, at least for the next few days. We'll have to see where it goes from here…" She flashed across the room, dashing to the dream machine, scrolling through screens at a feverishly rapid pace. She started mumbling to herself, jotting things down on her 'Ghetto Clipboard'.

I took this as my cue to get the hell out of here, lest I have the urge to be trampled on.

I pushed myself up, being struck by a thick wave of nausea. My head ached, and I almost fell back to the safety of the bed, but I kept myself up with the help of the bed rail. _Was this what being hung over felt like? _I mused horrified.

Picking up the drowsy Snivy in my lap, I placed him in my discarded bag, side stepping slightly to allow a charging Fennel by. I rolled my eyes at her, smiling "Thanks so much for all your help, Fennel. I'm glad I'm not on drugs and I'm not utterly crazy"

She waved over her shoulder "No problem, my dear. Hey, if you see Bianca before you leave town, please let her know I'll be getting her Munna back to her soon, ok?"

"Sure thing, Professor Fennel"

Fennel twirled her finger "Professor Fennel… I quite like that. Has a nice ring to it… Professor Fennel, Professor Fennel, Professor Fennel…"

Her singing faded away as I made my way down the caramel-colored stairwell, rolling my eyes. My boots hit each step with a nice loud _thunk_, walking almost with new reassurance for my well-being and sanity.

"You up for a greasy food fest, Thorn?" Hangover cures, here we come.

* * *

**Oooooohhhh, more is reveiled about the myserious dreams! Peoples and Pokemon, I am Pokegirl and its nice to see you again.**

**N-"Greetings"**

**So, Mina is having more than one dream, and they seemed to be connected. Dose anyone know why? Heres a hint: what has appeared in both versions of the dream?**

**N-"Mmmm, and what about the clearing and the lake and the girl? What could it all mean? And the same girl in the field with the dead bodies?"**

**Do any of you recognize the descripion of the clearing( the one from the dream at the begining of the chapter)? It matches a special place in one of the games, and its not in Black and White :P You may wanna look into it if you want a foreshadowing of what is to happen. I can say you will find no resources describing the Darkwood Tree nor the shadowy Purrloin-like are part of my own imagination, and therefore do not offcialy exist; the clearing, however, is based off a real location.**

**N-"Next time, we meet another one of Mina's family members, and she gets a special present!"**

**And that present will become crucial in order for her to win the Unova league. Thats all for now, my dears, Ciao!**


	14. Chapter 13: More presents with holes

Chapter 13: More Presents with Holes in Them

"Chili…. CHILI!" I screamed, disrupting all present in the main dining room of the Stration City gym/café. We had just left Fennel's and were now here to annoy Chili and get some food. A middle-aged couple gave me a look from the other side of the bar, their 're-kindling their marriage' session having been so unpleasantly interrupted. I stuck out my tongue at them and continued yelling for Chili.

"CHILI CHILI CHILI CHILI CHILI CHILI!"

I smacked my hand down on the little silver bell that sat next to a little box of napkins on the deep red bar, making it clang obnoxiously, its chipper sound resonation in the air.

_Clang clang clang clang clang clang clang cla-_

"What the hell do you want?" Chili growled, slamming him hand down on top of mine, effectively silencing my bell clanging. He removed his hand from mine, pulling my hand off the bell along with his own, making the anger-crushed bell let out one final defeated _chlnk _before falling silent. I looked at the poor mashed thing, its dome-like top beaten in, its metallic base all curled up like a metal potato chip.

"Hi, Chili!" I said sweetly, voice dripping with girliness. His head sunk down into his pristine white shirt collar, making him look a bit like a embarrassed Dwebble. Thorn snickered from within my bag, throwing a piece of balled up receipt paper at Chili's head, which bounced off his anger-red nose making Thorn laugh harder. I smiled like a cheeky dog.

"Ok, I'm leaving…" Chili groaned, pointing a pen over his shoulder at a brass plague over the deep brown bar station at the back. "Right to refuse service, fishes. Have a nice day…"

"Ack, wait. I just wanna buy some food… come back matchstick monkey." I said after him, his nickname drumming against his ears. He hesitated before coming back, probably thinking whether or not to just pic Pansear on us, but came back over, little order pad held in his hand, pen poised above to write down our order so he could get the hell away from us.

I put my finger on my lips, trying to figure out what I wanted. Thorn from my bag was whispering to get one of everything; I smushed my hand in his face and he kept quiet. We could afford a bunch more food now, having won some money from the gym battle. I thought of the lovely new trio badge nestled in my newly-bought badge case, its three differently colored gems proclaiming my victory. I smiled with pride.

"Any day now, Snivy brains…" Chili grumbled irratatedly.

Thorn bit down on my hand, making me jump back a bit. _"Get to it, owner, I'm withering away down here. Order, or I'm doing it for ya, and you'll have to pay for it all with your life savings." _His eyebrows were crooked and he was looking very impatient.

"Hmm, fine. Hey Chili, you still got any of those Ghost Chilies lying around?" I put my head on my hand, looking over at him from across the bar.

He rubbed his head a bit embarrassedly "Yeah, we still got some left. I threw a couple in somebody's potato soup, and they had to go to the hospital so we're kinda banned from using them…. Ever…" he brushed a few stray locks of swirly maroon hair out of his face. Thorn snickered some more from my bag.

"Well can you take what's left and dip 'em in that hot sauce? Oh and deep fry them? 'Kay? Oh, and I've got cash…"

Chili blinked once. He blinked again. "You're suicidal."

I pointed again at the brass plaque over the bar station. Underneath the huge, Ming-li-u style writing telling the write to refuse service, there was a teeny tiny subscript underneath "Customer's always right, Chili my dear"

He sighed, but scribbled down the order, grabbing a clean glass from underneath the bar and filling it partway with ice water. Jamming a lemon wedge over the rim, he pushed it towards me. "What's got you in such a damn chipper mood?"

I took a swig of the water, crackly bits of ice melting down my throat "Eh, I just found out I'm not crazy or on drugs, I got a badge case and a new sketch book and now I'm pestering you for food. It's been a good day" I downed half of the remaining water, giving the glass to Thorn so he could have the rest.

Chili frowned rubbing his hair "You sure you went to the right doctor? 'Cause I'd say otherwise..."

I smiled "Not even you can ruin my good mood. Please, I wanna get going. Get me food before Thorn eats your hand. And I'm not being rude. I'm being truthful." I widened my smile, grinning Cheshire Cat-like in such a way I'm sure it's pretty darn creepy. Thorn would be proud.

Chili shuddered "Coming right up…" he mumbled walking away.

Ten minutes, and a very annoying Thorn chomping on my hand a few times later, Chili appeared with a slightly grease-stained white paper bag with the café's logo printed on the front. He shoved it at me. I grabbed it and unwrapped the top, a deliciously greasy smell hitting my nose and making my mouth water. I reached into the bag, feeling the heat from the freshly fried goodies inside radiate against my hand. I plucked one from within and looked at it.

The batter was expertly fried, a beautiful golden brown incasing the deep ruby colored peppers underneath. I sniffed and inhaled its wonderful spicy-greasy smell. Chili grew closer, eyes flickering with interest.

"So? Quite being a wimp and eat one already"

I stuck it in my mouth. I bit down. I chewed for a moment. I swallowed. I rubbed my chin.

"Got any bleu cheese dressing?"

**OOOOOOOOO **

So we left town, heading west for Route 3, chomping on the strangely delicious fried Ghost Chilies. Hang over feelings, good-bye. The dry wind ruffled the trees, making deep amber colored leaves swirl to the ground, floating over our heads like a scene from a romantic movie shot in the fall.

_"Pass the cheese, please"_

I handed one of the little plastic cups of bleu cheese to Thorn. He dunked his pepper in it and stuck it in his mouth. I munched on a pepper of my own, enjoying the subtle cumin taste in the pepper batter, complementing the boys on their impeccable cooking skills.

_"So where exactly are we heading? You haven't told me squat. And I fell like your leading me to some specific place"_

I began to reply, but the outline of a homey looking building surrounded by a high dark brown fence. It was small and box shaped, with a grey-green roof and a small yard surrounded by a white picket fence. A second building started to appear from behind the first; it was a touch bigger than the one we saw first, with a bright red roof and a big orange oak tree in the yard. I smiled, breaking into a run, hearing Thorn protest behind me.

_"Hey! Where are you going?!"_

I kicked my feet up more, running up the short flight of steps up onto the slight hill the buildings were set on. "Come on, we're here!"

**OOOOOOOOO**

The door opened with a slight squeak, and sleepy brown eyes peered out through messy black-brown hair that matched my own. The eyes widened in surprise as I leapt forward to hug their owner, hand catching me just before I barreled him over.

"Uncle Mike!" I yelped happily, squeezing my arms around his black-shirted torso.

"Mini-Mi! What goes on?" He said, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and returning my hug. I pulled back to smile at him, happy to see my uncle after such a long time.

Mike was at about and average height for a thirty-year-old, about 6' or so, and had wavy black-brown hair that shot up in all directions when it hadn't been brushed. His eyes were the color of burnt chocolate, and they blended in nicely with his hair. He was a Pokémon breeder, and this was the day care he ran here on Route 3.

He rubbed my head "So what brings you to my little corner of the Unova region?"

Thorn had finally walked up the stairs, as he was totally taking his time reaching us, the little snot. I dashed over and picked him up, hopping up and down in front of my uncle like I had a sugar high "I'm on my very own adventure now! See this is my partner, Thorn, and we just won the Trio Badge from Stration City!"

Mike smiled "Well I wish I had known you were in town, I would have brought your present to you sooner…" he rubbed the back of his head.

"Huh?"

"Ah, I'm being a bad host. Come on in, I'll make us something to drink…" he pushed open the door, gesturing us inside.

Thorn hopped down from my arms, strolling through the open door like it had been specifically opened just for his grace _"Don't mind if I do"_

I rolled my eyes but followed him inside. The door was closed behind me, sealing us all in the darkness of the room, making my eyes have to readjust. Mike came up from behind, stepping over an over-turned bag of Pokémon food. "Sorry for the mess, ya'll, it's been a hectic few days" he mumbled, pushing aside a stack of carriers into the eggshell-white tiled kitchen.

He reached into the fridge, pulling out a jug of fresh squeezed juice, the opened a cabinet and pulling out three cups. He gestured for us to sit at the table.

Thorn plopped down at the head; I sat to the right of him, Mike the left. Mike twisted open the orange cap to the jug, pouring out the pale yellow-ish juice within, a few stray seeds left behind from being juiced joining the sticky sweet mix in our cups. He pushed a pale blue cup with a few rainbows and a picture of smiling trio of Deerling underneath it at me "Fresh squeezed Sitrus Berry juice, your favorite"

I gulped it down eagerly, the sweetness from the juice cutting through the spicy cover left on my tongue from all the Ghost Chilies. Thorn examined the contense of his cup before taking a drink, discerning eyes looking over the picture of a Cinccino mom and her Minchino children playing in the flowers on the side of the green cup.

_"Cheesiness much?" _Thorn grumbled, scratching at the Cinccino's face with a nail, causing its image to start to flake off in bits of white and grey paint.

Mike smiled a bit sheepishly "Well I'm a breeder and I run a Day care, I have to keep things kid-appropriate. I actually like the ones with the little Vanilites on them…" he scratched at his own blue cup, two Vanilites throwing snowballs playfully at each other on the side, sounding like a little kid who just admitted to liking Barbie dolls.

Thorn looked a bit taken aback, as someone other than me had replied to him. I poked him in the arm, smiling at his surprise. Of course Uncle Mike knew how to talk to Pokémon, he was a breeder. I changed subjects to keep Thorn from saying anything rude.

"So, why's your house such a disaster area? You always were so OCD about keeping things clean…" I inquired, looking around Mike's house. Papers and toys and half-empty treat bags were strewn chaotically in the floor around the room; the brown plaid-print couch had several deep scratches on the cushions and arms, fluffy orange filling from within flowing through the gashes; There were seven beds in the corner of the living room, in various stages of dismemberment, right under the table the TV was held on, each a different color with each a different item hidden in a corner of the bed. I caught site of a scrap of a green wool blanket in the orange bed, a half-chewed Pokémon bone in the purple, and a broken Christmas coffee mug in the red one.

Mike sighed, taking a gulp from his own juice before answering "Well, I've been fostering a rather rowdy bunch of baby Pokémon I got in last week. They kinda… destroyed everything…" he chuckled, not even sounding a bit mad at their destructive antics. He really loved Pokémon that much.

I cocked my head to the side, mussing with Thorn's leafy collar "Why are you housing them in your house, not in the shed out back like you usually do? That would kinda solve your upside-down turned house problem, now wouldn't it?" I giggled.

Mike's face turned very dark as he stared down into his cup "Well, I would be, but there have been a rash of Pokémon thieveries lately, and I don't want to risk losing these guys." He rubbed his head, looking back up. "A bunch of Pokémon from the preschool next door have been stolen in the past few days, and so far we have no idea how their doing it or who they even are. Uh, it's so frustrating!" Mike slammed his fist down on the table, making our cups jump.

"I've been up the past few nights trying to figure out who they are and trying to stop them. Zebstrika and I… well… it's been rough on top of the fact I have seven troublesome munchkins running around…" he laughed a bit.

I looked over at my uncle. Though he was smiling, I could see his frustration under that laugh. He had deep lines from a lack of sleep punctuating under his eyes, and his eyes were a bit puffy, looking a lot like Thorn did. That explains why he was so sleepy when he answered the door; he must have been napping.

"So where's Zebstrika? I wanna say hi…" I looked around the living room and kitchen, searching for Mike's pride and joy. Zebstrika had been with Mike since it was a Blitzel, and had got him way before I was born. When I met him, Blitzel had already evolved into Zebstrika, so me, being three when I met him, was totally tiny compared to him. He had an air of confidence and pride to him, and he often pranced around his domain like the king he was. When I first saw him over the picket fence in Mike's front yard, he had come over to make sure I knew this was his providence, stamping his foot on the ground, and forcing me to back up. Rather than cower through, I jumped up and over the fence, grabbing on to his lightning bolt mane, and hugging him around the neck. Even then I had had an affinity for the more dangerous looking Pokémon, and we have got along swell ever since. Zebstrika was also one of Mike's main breeding Pokémon, and I'm sure at least half of the Blitzel being trained in the area are his offspring.

"Oh he's over at the Pokémon preschool with the rambunctious six. It lets them get off some steam so they don't completely trash my house, and the kids can get experience with lots of different Pokémon. And Zebstrika's there to keep the peace…" Mike sighed a bit as he smiled. "But enough about that… I have a present for you" Mike got up and disappeared around the corner and into the hall. There was a sharp metallic sound, then the noise of cardboard scrapping together, and a few popping sounds and a curse when the sound of stretching tape was heard.

Mike came back into the room a few minutes later, sucking on his thumb, which he must have cut on the tape dispenser. In his other hand he carried a box of some sort. Smiling around his thumb, he pushed the box at me. "It's a 'congratulations for starting your journey' present. Open it."

I peered at the box closer. It was wrapped up in old 'Happy Birthday' yellow gift wrapping, all the 'Birthdays' crossed out with blue magic marker and 'Journey' written in instead. Festive looking streams and balloons also covered the paper, the green in the streamers matching the slick-looking green bow on top of the box. I began to inch closer, about to list the lid when something caught my eye. Holes. Holes in the bottom of the box. Air holes. Holes for air.

I began to shrink away from the box, a thoroughly horrified look on my face. The last time there were holes in a box that I received…. My mind flashed back to only a few days ago when I had unwrapped Thorn and the others, and they then proceeded to wreck my bedroom and almost push Cheren to suicide. Uh-uh, not happening again. I began to slowly push away the present when my uncle's face made me stop. He looked so excited for me to open it, hopping around like he was going to burst. This meant one of two things: a) he was totally playing a prank on me and was trying to contain his laughter for what was about to ensue and was failing miserably, or b) there was really something inside of the box and he was genuinely excited for me to open it. Hoping for the latter, I sucked in a breath the wretched the top off the box.

_"EEVEEEE!"_

"Huh?" I peered into the box. Sitting primly in the dead center of the box was a Pokémon of some sort. It was small and had fluffy cappuccino-colored fur, with a few milky-beige colored tufts of fur around its neck on the tip of its incredibly bushy tail. It was about a foot tall, and had stunning deep brown eyes that were totally chibi worthy. Its long ears tipped this way and that, looking very much like a curious creature. I stuck out my hand, and its baby-cheek-pink tongue flipped out and licked my hand, feeling a bit like sandpaper on my skin. I reached out with another hand and picked it up, bringing it to my chest. It settled in happily, batting at a fraying edge on my vest.

"What is it?"

Mike smiled, walking over to pet its tuffty head "It's called an Eevee. It a special Pokémon from a region called Kanto. It was one of the seven Pokémon I've been taking care of." The Eevee in my arms yipped happily, rubbing its head into Mike's hand. "It was the most well-mannered of the seven, so I thought it'd be the best one for you."

I laughed as Eevee licked my nose, looking every bit as cute as it really was. "I love…him. It's a boy, right?" I flipped up its fluffy tail to make sure.

"Yup, it's a male. Eevee have a skewed gender ratio, making about 87.5% of them male and the remaining 12.5% female. I actually only got one female in this bunch, and she's actually the worst of them all. She's like their ringleader or something…" Mike laughed.

Thorn was at my shoulder, peering around me at the new arrival. He stuck his hand out right in front of Eevee's nose _"If you bite me, I will know you are evil and I will slay you" _his eyes dared the new comer to make a move.

Eevee grinned _"I'm Eevee, and no I won't bite you. You seem cool. I think I can get along with you. You seem like an interesting person." _Eevee smiled good-naturedly, making Thorn smiled back.

_"See, this kid knows what he's talking about! I am cool… and interesting… I'm the most cool and interesting Pokémon you'll ever meet. Heck, even Archeus thinks I'm cool…" _Thorn chirped, crossing his arms across his chest, eyes closed.

I rolled my eyes.

"Well, I'll let you two get settled in a bit. You're free to stay the night if you want, I'd love it if you do." Mike looked from me to the bright yellow and red clock on the dining room wall. "Actually it's about time I start making dinner. The Eevees will be back soon and their gonna be hungry from all that playing…. don't wanna give them another excuse to mangle my couch again." Mike laughed wandering into the kitchen, and soon the bang of pots and pans and the smells of good food started wafting through the house.

I decided to sketch my new Pokémon.

**OOOOOOOOO **

Later that night, after dinner, we all were in our rooms, supposed to be asleep. I sat up on my bed, letting the moonlight filter in though the curtain-less window above my head, the moon's glow allowing me to finish the sketch of Eevee I had started earlier. I was adding in a bunch of messy lines of shading; Thorn and Eevee were curled at the head of the bed, hogging all the pillows, Thorn's face looking very peaceful for the first time in a while.

I was still a little wary of sleeping, even if the dreams were supposedly gone, and after trying to keep from freaking myself out enough to go to sleep for a good forty-five minutes, I finally gave up and decided to doodle.

I sighed, looking down at my pathetic drawing. I had made his ears too big and his body to small. His legs were a bit too long and I had given him four toes per foot instead of three. The attempted shading just looked like a mass of dark scribbles underneath his head and on the underside of his body, looking like he had some weird hair condition. I sighed again and flipped to the next clean white page in my sketchbook.

I'm not even sure why I bought it, I just kinda did. I'm not all that even good at anything really artsy.

I tapped my pencil against the page, sitting back against the golden-colored footboard of the bed. Letting my mind wander, my hand started to sketch, making thick jagged lines and smaller, more curvier ones. I watched helplessly through shadowed blue eyes as my hand sketched out wild-looking shapes. My hand followed the curve it had just made, ending in a quick swoop and a soft point. I sat back to see what I had drawn.

At first it looked like nothing other than a tumble of lines, but then it started to look like… hair. Curving, jagged, wild hair. Hair that by no means could be tamed, not even with the highest-#lock hairspray or by any hat or bandanna or hair gel. Hair the color of tea leaves that settled around his hips when the wind didn't stir it.

"What the eff am I doing?" I laughed at myself, jamming the flow of thoughts that this picture had brought to my brain. Ok, so maybe I had been cleared for drugs, but maybe I really was insane, especially after drawing _the hair _of someone I'm still totally suspicious of. I ripped the bag forcefully out of the sketchbook, making the thin metal twinges bend slightly as I yanked the page out. I balled it up and threw it over my should, aiming for the trash can but missing by a few feet.

I shrugged, got up, and went to get a midnight snack.

* * *

**Nice to see you all again! This was a much lighter chapter than the last few... Pokegirl, N, and...**

**Thorn-"Me"**

**Thorn's show got canceled so he's back with me :D**

**Thorn-"Correction, our producer-Pokegirl- decided it was too hard right now to keep up with two stories right now"**

**Yeah...*scratches head* its exam time at school, so I don't have much time to write. I'd rather just keep up with my normal story :)**

**N-"Uh... Can I leave now? Since Thorn's back... I kinda want to leave..."**

**Nope!*wraps arms around his waist* You will stay because because you don't appear again until another two chapters. You two will have to play nice until then.*squeezes***

***Thorn and N look at each other. N shudders. Thorn grins***

**Thorn-"Ah, the feeling of being feared... its good to have it back..."**

**So, Mina got her new eevee! Acually around this time when I was playing the acual game, my real uncle (who also played the games, only he played black :P) gave me an eevee and I thought I'd mind as well add it to the story, since these are my interperatations of my experiences with the game anyways :)**

**And next time... we see who's behind the mysterious Pokemon-nappings (look we all know who's behind it, but its fun to write about anyway)**

**Peace, poke-people**


	15. Chapter 14: Misplaced Soup, Patrats

Chapter 14: Misplaced Soup, Patrats of Fury, and other Oddities"

"What in the world are you making?!"

Mike looked up from the stove, the mid-morning sunlight casting shadows from his hair across his sleepy face, his brown eyes widening when he saw me up. In his hands, he held a bread loaf pan, the fresh bread within golden crusted and sweet smelling. Around his feet danced six tumbling baby Eevee, looking for crumbs, batting at each other playfully, and playing with the saggy bottoms of Mike's plaid pants legs. Zebstrika was nowhere to be seen.

"Ah, Mini-Mi!"

I sniffed again, strange smells mingling in my nose and making me half want to lick my lips and half cringe away in fear. The cloying scent of brown sugar was mixed with that of burnt nuts, mint leaves, lemonade, and strangly, fruitcake.

I ruffled my hair a bit, which was now a scraggly mess due to it still being in a pony tail, looking down over my shoulder as the two sleepy forms of my Pokémon followed me from the shadowy hallway into the sun. I rubbed my tired eyes watching them.

Thorn was looking quite satisfied, stretching out his arms and flicking his tail, eyes clear of the red lines that had marked them for the past three days. He did a half twirl in the shining light of the morning sun, red eyes glowing _"Ahhh, the sun in the morning after you've slept like the dead. It's a nice day not to be dead"_

Eevee, however, was the exact opposite of Thorn, dragging his paws, head down, eyes squinted and grumbling _"Uh, I hate the sun. Hurts my eyes. At least at night, you can actually look at the moon without your eyes melting…" _he shuffled grumbling under the dining room table, and the second he laid down, was swarmed by his siblings. One chewed at his ear, and another batted at his tail, one even climbing up and sitting on his back like he was a Ponyta.

I smiled at my duo, watching Thorn climb to the head of the table again, taking my place next to him. I felt a warm fluffy creature lay its body down on my foot. Putting my head on top of my chin, I inquired "So what exactly are you concocting over there, Chef le breeder Mike?"

Mike set down the bread loaf pan, rubbing his finger over the top, wincing a bit as his finger began to steam "What le chef had prepared are some very old timey secret recipes, very hush-hush , hmm…?" he swept around me, playing with his pretend mustache that hovered theoretically over his upper lip, speaking in a cheesy French-man's voice.

Giggling, I pushed him away "Get to it, Chef Mike, before I toss all you fancy food to the curb and just make some eggs"

Mike held up his hands in 'I surrender', replying "Well yesterday before you got here, I was doing some cleaning, and I came across this HUUUUUUUUGE hole in the wall" he made a show with his hands to display how big it was "and sitting right in it was this old German recipe book! So I grabbed it out and decided to make an authentic breakfast for us!" he put his hands on his hips, looking very proud of himself.

I laughed "Authentic what? In case you forgot, we're Japanese, not German." Another hit of a saliva-inducing smell got to my nose. "Acually, I'd really like to know what you've got cookin'…"

"Ta-da! Two delicious old-school German recipes: Forgotten Cookies and Stolen Bread!" He held up the pan of bread and a cookie sheet materialized from nowhere, its slick grey surface covered in fluffy white meringuey-looking cookies.

"So what, you find that bread cooling on a windowsill and you forgot about the cookies some guy left in a ditch?!" I laughed at their absurd names. Crazy Germans, right pack of hoodlems they were… are… are there even any real Germans's left? Didn't they, like, all die in the ice age?

"Totally. I mean the bread was totally stolen, that's why my kitchen's a mess and my oven door's broken 'cause a pack of brown munchkins tried to 'help'. And the Forgotten Cookies aren't really aren't cookies, their fossilized Whimsicott turds" he tossed a cookie at me; I jugged it back and forth before finally catching it.

"Mmmm, fluffy" I chewed my way through the light and airy meringue cookie, munching a bit on a chocolate chip that had made the center of the cookie its home.

_"I need food too! Hand one over, breeder, ACK!"_

I snickered as Thorn fell out of the chair and onto the ground to join his cookie on the rug, er… which wasn't there anymore; the cookie, not the rug. One of the wily Eevee had snatched it up, and was now chewing on it softly as the rest of them looked on with envy.

Mike brought the loaf pan and the rest of the cookies over to the table, with oven mitts, and set they down, sticking a huge bread knife in the top of the bread.. He sat down across from me as I reached for it, hacking myself away a fat piece of the steamy, sweet smelling bread, and lifting it with two fingers, 'Ow'ing all the way, to my plate.

"Breakfast is served, my Mini-Mi…"

I smiled at Mike's old pet name for me. He gave it to me when I was reeeeaaaalllly little; I have always been really short, the shortest one in my family, save for the kids, by far. So Mike starting calling me mini, but added 'Mi' on 'cause both of our names start with 'Mi' making it sound like he was calling me a mini version of him. Which I kinda was; having the same hair color and messy wavy hair and all, he looked like he could be my second older brother. So he combines the two words and the name stuck.

I munched on a piece of the slightly sweet doughy bread "So if there's Stolen bread and Forgotten cookies… then what else is there…. Misplaced Soup?"

_"If the soup has little shiny things in it like the bread, then you'll hear nothing from me… probably"_

"Well, Mina-"

The door was slammed open, the wooden door hitting the eggshell white wall behind it, causing the shelves behind it to rattle precariously. A small silver bell fell to the floor, tinkling lightly when it landed, red ribbons flopping over the metal spherical shape; what looked to be a decorative pokeball with a few slash-like scratches on the top rolled off the shelf and bounced off the couch and onto the floor, rolling to an Eevee's feet.

I gaped at the black-haired silhouette in the door way.

"Mina! I knew you were here!"

I blinked. Thorn's tail began to rise up on end a bit "Cheren?! What are you doing here?!" How in the world did he know where I was? I never told him or Bianca about my uncle's house.

Cheren blinked, smiling, as a pert fire pig made its way up onto his shoulder. _"TEEEEEPP!"_

"Tepig said he smelled Thorn and I ran right here! Er, eh-hum. Look at this and bask in my stupendous glory, rookie. This is the real deal…" Cheren calmed himself down, digging around in his pocket for something before producing it and letting it shine in the light. "Behold the Trio Badge!"

I looked over the badge, watching the lights from the lamp in the corner casting off the three gems within the line's intertwined diamonds. I shrugged.

"You may look, but not touch this is a real, genui-"

"Glad to see you finally caught up. I got mine yesterday."

"Huh?"

Thorn snickered, taking his turn to talk while I shoved a piece of bread in my mouth

_"I single-handedly defeated Chili's amateur Pansear and didn't even receive any real burns…"_

"Yourh fudhin ith Thorn…" I talked around my mouthful of Stolen Bread, which _was_ surprisingly good enough to steal, should you get the chance.

Cheren just blinked, looking between all of us: Me chewing bread, mouth half open mouthing off at Thorn, Thorn trash talking Cheren, who couldn't even understand him, and Mike, who wasthe flaky bits off the cookies to the clamoring Eevee underneath him, nonchalant to the situation on the topside of the table. Tepig on Cheren's shoulder looked a bit like he wanted to jump on the table, to tell Thorn off or to eat some off the food, I'm not sure.

Cheren gritted his teeth, pointing one of his long lanky fingers at me "Well then you'll just have to battle me then! Since we both won the same gym badge, we both must be about the same level of strength! Let's battle! Right now… Hey! Stop ignoring me…. Put down that bread!" Cheren tried yanking the oblong-shaped piece of bread from the fingers, trying to fling it to the ground where hungry Eevees awaited its descent. I held on tight though, determined not to lose my bread.

A green vine lashed out, ripping the bread from my fingers, shoving it into Cheren's mouth, then pushing him back into the chair at the end of the table behind him. He plopped to the slightly worn down cushioned seat, mouth working to chew away the object lodged in his air passage, probably to yell at me again.

_"First, calm the hell down and just eat the bread. Second, your disturbing the peace. Again, just shut up and eat the bread… at-t-t-t…" _Thorn moved the tray of cookies away from Tepig's reaching grasp with his other vine. _"No cookies for fat kids, fat kid…" _he dumped the tray onto the ground under the table, all the Eevee, including my own, swarming it like fat kids around a box of doughnuts.

Tepig sniffed, about to launch into a whine fest in Cheren's ear before he piped up after downing the bread. "Well… that was actually… pretty tasty. What in the world was it?" Cheren scooted his chair closer, reaching for the knife, hacking away his own piece of the thick tasting bread.

Mike's voice came from across the table "Its called Stolen Bread. I stole it from a little old women who was passing through here, but she ended up being a ninja, and she kicked my butt while I was trying to steal the bread and I died, and then I scared her with a really weirdly placed mole I've had all my life, and then she died and I walked away with the bread and here we are now. True story*pantomimes holding up a glass of fancy wine*." He didn't even look up from petting an Eevee that had crawled into his lap, messy hair covering up his face, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.

Thorn looked up from shoving a cookie into his face _"Cool story bro, tell it again"_

Cheren looked very weirded out "Uh, excuse me? Who are you?"

"I am nothing but a figment of your imagination…. Oooooooooo"

I threw a cookie at Mike, finally making him look up from the Eevee, his face red with holding back laughter. "That's Mike, he's my uncle. He lives here as a Pokémon breeder with all these Eevees…"

"How fascinating…" Cheren was eyeing the Eevees tumbling around the table, still in a frenzy after the remaining cookies. He reached town and ran his hand over one of their fluffy tails, marveling on how soft they were.

I was about to laugh but I realized something. Zebstrika still hadn't showed up; surly a big man like him wouldn't wanna miss breakfast…

"Mike… where's Zebstrika…?"

A very shaken look came over my uncle's face "Oh no… I haven't seen him since last night…"

I got up and threw myself at the window, ripping open the orange curtains to peer outside into the backyard. Zebstrika often spent his time outdoors, preferring to sleep in the open instead of confined to a shed or stable. I frantically scanned the entire backyard, looking for a black stripe, or a sharply-pointed mane, or anything that might alert me to Zebstrika's presence. The big wooden shed that usually housed the Pokémon that were staying here was unbearably empty, both inside and in its immediate area. The trees revealed nothing, simply casting down their dark shadows on the ground below them.

Zebstrika wasn't anywhere.

"Mike-!"

The door slammed open again; knocking into the wall with such force it likely left a door knob-sized hole in the poor stucco walls. We all whipped our heads in the door's direction, eyes wide.

Bianca was puffing, gasping, out of breath in the doorway, eyes wide and tone shrill "Cheren, you have to come quick, its them agai-"she stopped to take a gasp of air but stopped once she saw me standing there in PJ's next to Cheren.

"Mina, you're here too? I followed Chery's scent all the way here, you know he was that peculiar pine-mixed-with-gingerbread natural smell to him, and then I find this house, and you're here too and…"

Cheren slapped his hand down over her mouth, cutting off the spaztastic babbling brought on by her hysteria "Bianca, what happened?"

She lifted Cheren's hand from her mouth, which her replaced upon her wrist, and stared up into his eyes with her own frantic green ones "Some people dressed as knights came running by, totting a bunch of Pokémon, and they stole one little girl's right in front of my eyes! They were carrying tons of other pokeballs too, and were talking about a Zebstrika they had nabbed from the preschool next door-"

"ZEBSTRIKA!" Mike and I yelled at the same time.

Bianca nodded quickly before continuing "and they were heading towards a cave a little further down the road. We have to go catch them!"

There was more scuffling and the pounding of shoes on gravel when a little girl, no older than six, ran up, her little clump of hair golden blond brought up in a small bun on the crown of her head bopping rapidly. She was wearing a light jean-material jumper and a cute pair of lime green stripey socks. She was out of breath from running as well, head hung over, looking at her dirty white mary-janes covered in dust from the route. "Miss… My Pokémon…" she lifted her fist to her eyes, which were glistening silently with tears. She sniffed loudly, causing Bianca to kneel to the ground, grabbing her hands and holding them tight.

"Ooh, don't cry, we'll get them back. It'll be ok, it'll be ok…" she cast a quick look in our direction, waiting for our decision. I wasn't going to let Team Plasma run away with my uncle's livelihood Taking away Zebstrika was a big mistake. The little girl would have to deal if we couldn't find her Pokemon, but dammit, we were getting Zebstrika back; I jump away from the window, taking charge and giving orders.

"Don't worry Bianca, we'll handle it…" I sent a glance over at Cheren, who nodded, scooping up Tepig from the Eevee mosh pit on the ground. I snapped my fingers and Thorn was on my shoulder, Eevee around my ankles.

"Cheren and I will go to that cave and find out whats going on. By the sound of it, it has to be Team Plasma…" I growled out their name, leaving a deep silence in the room once my echoing anger had receded. I still hadn't gotten over the little stunt they pulled at the dream yard, nearing killing Munna and forcing us all into a corner.

Mike began to get up from the table, going over to pick the pokeball that had fallen from the shelf. He gripped it, his fingers going white, eyebrows crunched over his eyes, looking very determined "Those have to be the same thieves from the past few nights! I have to go with you and help rescue them!"

I shook my head, grabbing my messenger bag and heading for the door, Cheren in tow "No, you need to stay here and protect the Eevee, just in case some random Team Plasma member shows up thinking he can make an easy catch. Bianca," I pointed at her "You stay here too, keep her calm and safe. We'll all be back as soon as possible… I'll try to get her Pokemon back..." I grabbed my hat, wrenching it down over my head. _B__ut don't be upset if it gets in the way of finding Zebstrika. He comes first above all else;_I charged for the door, but a hard-edged voice stopped me "Are you actually going out in your pajama's?"

I realized how right the voice was, looking myself over in my suddenly goofy-looking yellow checkerboard pjs. I turned and saw my uncle giving me the raised eyebrow, a faint flicker of a smile on his stone cold face.

He was trying to hold back his anger at the situation, gripping the pokeball in his hands with such tremendous force his hands had begun to quake. A small smile slid onto my face, and I walked over to my uncle, putting my hand on his shoulder "Don't worry, we'll get his back… and yes I'll go change.."

I ran down the hall, and started undressing, when exactly one minute and thirty-eight seconds had passed, the door burst open Cheren standing in the opening. He grabbed my wrist, which was on the belt loops of my shorts, still pulling them up, when he dragged me out and into the living room again "In case you didn't know, we're in a rush, princess. Lets go already!"

He yanked my sharply out the door, the sudden sunlight making me dizzy from being inside so long, all while me still trying to button up my shorts. I shook him off, taking a split second to button my shorts, and tuck in my floppy pink laces of my boots. Looking up, I saw Cheren tapping his foot on the ground impatentiely, Tepig nosing the ground in search of a scent.

I sighed "Yes, we can go now"

Cheren smiled and I snapped my fingers, Thorn and Eevee appearing at my feet once more.

We took of running, into the slightly overgrown path that lead to Route 3, our frantic dashing kicking up rocks, our feet leading us into the unknown for some series pay back.

**OOOOOOOOO**

"So this is it?" I asked, staring up at the enormous mouth of the cave that gaped in front of us. The wall of rock it was attached too was so monstrously huge that it blocked out the sun, shading us in cool shadows from the harsh sun. From the inside of the cave I heard the soft sound of rushing water, and the occasional scuffle of something moving.

"Yes, this was the only cave on the Route for miles. It was to be the one…" Cheren took a second to glace at the plaque melted into the side, directly right, of the opening "Its called Wellspring Cave…

I took a step forward, stepping my foot into the cave, a cold whisper of a chill tracing down my body "Well, nice to meetcha Wellspring cave, we're going to go kick your current inhabitants asses right now, ready Chery?"

He frowned at his nickname but didn't say anything. He nodded slightly, ruffling his hair, and we entered the cave. It was cold and dark, save for the small glow of light from the mouth of the cave. All was quiet, the drips of water off the stalagmites on the ceiling and a gentle hum in the background were the only noises. Not one Team Plasma member was to be found.

_Well, duh_ I hit myself mentally over the head. Of course they wouldn't be around the mouth of the cave. That's how idiots get caught, and yes, they did qualify as idiots. Violent idiots, but idiots all the same. I mentally rubbed my mustache, trying to get an idea for what top do next. Too bad Cheren decided to steal my thunder.

He whispered something quickly to Tepig, who nodded enthusiastically, eyes locked on Thorn, little brown pupils glowing mischievously. Cheren stood back up, looking a touch please with himself, watching Tepig carry out his commands.

Quietly, Tepig crept up on Thorn, who was messing with a pile of rocks in the corner; Tepig did a strange snort-snicker and came to stand directly behind Thorn. He sucked in a huge breath, causing his chest to inflate to the size of a watermelon and his rotund stomach to a squishy flap of skin and then… he used Ember. Right on Thorn's tail.

The silence was broken as a ear-drum breaking cry erupted from my grass snake, the onslaught of noise bouncing off the walls and making the entire ceiling quiver. Just as the scream began to echo, another loud noise came from Thorn, only this time he was cursing Tepig to the reverse world and back.

_"HHHHIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSS SS you *beep* *beeped**beep**beep*. Do you have any shame, you *beepolious* *beep* *beepity* *beep* to the *beep* and your mother's *beep* and *beep*"_

The noise rung through the air, making me cringe and cover my ears, watching Thorn get right up in a now very frightened Tepig's face, who had smooshed himself up against a rock, trying to make himself seem as small as possible in the face of the ragefull Snivy. A small rock fell from the ceiling over head, missing my nose by centimeters, falling to the ground and emitting one last echoing noise before all went silent.

All at once, we were surrounded on all sides by angry Team Plasma members, their shiny metal chain mail glistening even within the darkness of the cave. There was an equal mix of both guys and girls in the crowd of angry grunts, each starting to reach for either their pokeballs of their surprisingly lethal, and quite real, looking swords I had only just realized they all had.

Everyone was completely silent, all eyes scanning over everyone else's, grunts staring at us and each other, us staring at the grunts and over at Thorn, who had face-palmed in embarrassment.

Eevee was the one to break the silence, piping up from the back of the caravan _"Well that escalated quickly"_

This caused all in the immediate area to face-palm, including Thorn, who instead opted for face-grounding, a.k.a face planting.

"Well, look what we have here, a slumber party decided to disturb our camp. Why are you all here?! You all are trespassing on Plasma camp territory. Leave now, or we'll have to resort to less than savory means of throwing you out…" a grunt at the head of the pack said, voice rising over our heads and making the walls shake. He had already starting to withdraw a pokeball, which gleamed in the torchlight of the torches a few of the grunts were holding.

"Well, that sounds like an excellent way to prove you all are innocent of stealing Pokémon, telling guest to scram when they are just too simple trainers looking for a place to train" Cheren said, pointing his finger at the chest of the grunt who had spoken, smug look on his face.

I sighed "Cheren you also know that you just proved us non-innocent of just being trainers by telling them that, right?" Thorn tsked from his face plant near the rocks.

Cheren withered a bit, a strange look coming over his face, making his whole body shake like a pencil that was on the verge of being broken in half; he had gone white as a sheet.

"You will never rescue those Pokémon, you hear me? We liberated them, so we own them. Be gone pests!" the head grunt yelled again, the ranks around him shuffling in agreement, reaching for their weapons again, hand on the hilts of swords and pokeballs drawn into the torch light.

"Uh," a grunt a little further back in the crown piped up "Sir, you know you just admitted to what they implied, in sense condemning us. You basically just said we are robbers and we actually are behind all the thefts in the area, which technically we are, but they didn't know that until you said something and now we're all screwed…" the grunt was cut off by a sharp look from the main grunt. "You know… if that's all right… with… you…" he squeaked out.

Again, all present were locked in another awkward silence as the grunt who had just spoken tried to re-materialize back into the crowd, who all were burning into him with their eyes. Finally the main grunt sighed "Somebody, smack that ignorant buffoon…" there was the sharp sound of a hand across a face before the grunt continued "We have some kids to teach a lesson too…" he smiled menacingly.

I took a step forward "You don't know who your messing with, bub! You stole my uncle's Zebstrika, and I'm taking it back whether you like it or not! Thorn, Eevee… now!" I was joined by a snickering Eevee and a still sour-faced Thorn, both with their heads held up and their eyes aching for a battle.

The main grunt pushed his way to the front of the pack "If you want a battle, you got it! Lets go! Parats, to the ready!" he whipped out his pokeballs and in a flash, two Patrats stood with their elbows bent, hands at their temples, eyes glazed over with battle fury.

_"Ready to serve, SIR!" _the both squeaked.

The main grunt took this time to take a quick look around at his ranks on either side of him "What are you all waiting for? You have Pokémon too, attack!"

There was a deafening roar and about one-third of the plasma grunts released Pokémon of their own, Purrloins and Patats a few lone Pidoves, which I ached to Pokedex search, but restrained myself due to the onslaught that was about to bombard us.

"Purrloin, I need to you!" Cheren cried, releasing his Purrloin, which landed daintily on its feet, hissing at the wall of grunts that surrounded us.

I didn't have time to admire Cheren's new catch, as the first wave of attacks was launched "Use Tackle!" Patrat trainers commanded their Pokémon, "Scratch!" and "Assist!" from the Purrloin trainers and calls of "Gust!" from the Pidove owners.

"Thorn, Vine Whip! Eevee, use… uh" I had never battled with him before, so I didn't know what moves he could use; I went with the fail-safe move most every Pokémon with a brain/legs could use "Tackle!"

Cheren called orders to his Pokémon as well, and the two forced met, crashing into each other. Thorn whipped back a wall of attacking Patrats, Eevee knocking back the advancing Purrloins, me cheering them on.

The head grunt gritted his teeth "Parats, use Bide!"

The Patats pulled their arms crossed over their chests, tucking their head down, veins in their temples pulsing. _Huh?_

I had no idea what 'Bide' was, but it looked like they were just trying to stand the brunt of the attack, so I decided to wallop them good while we had the chance. "Thorn, use Vine Whip! Eevee, use Tackle!"

_"I can use moves other than Tackle, dork!" _Eevee yelped as he ran by, speeding so fast he nearly was stepping on Thorn's heels.

Together as one force they slammed into the two Patrats. The Patrats bucked slightly, but instead of being bowled over by the force of my Pokémon's attacks, they just straightened back, arms still crossed warrior-style across their chests, orange eyes glaring at us.

Thorn and Eevee sprung back and landed on their feet skidding back slightly, teeth gritted in confusion. I was really confused too; _Why weren't they fainted yet? _"What are they doing?!"

The grunt chuckled, stepping out of the way as Tepig Gyro Balled over a line of Purrloins, eyes locked on mine "What they are doing is storing energy, harnessing every ounce of damage you're inflicting on them so they can… DISH IT BACK DOUBLE! Patrats, unleash your energy on those miserable runts!"

There was a defeating sound, and the Patrats roared, fiery orange energy spewing out of them and falling on us like crashing meteors. Eevee cried out, flying back into my legs, causing me to tumble over into the dirt. A few seconds later, Thorn came flying back and landed at my side on his stomach, gritting his teeth, eyes tearing from the fiery orange energy the Patrats were still giving off. _Uh, its too hot…_

"Hey!" Cheren cried from a few feet away. The light flashed, then the energy was expelled in one sweeping wave, making us all tumble backward again. I was pushing myself up from the ground when a hand came over my shoulder; Cheren helped me up. I looked over and saw a tower of defeated grunts piled up according to height on the other side of the cave, fainted Pokémon in another neat and orderly pile directly left of them, looking organized by type; Of course, leave it to Cheren to organize his enemies' bodies when we are in the middle of a crisis. The rest of the grunts that didn't have Pokémon were all starting to shrink into the darkness, weapons starting to be drawn out to protect their fleeing.

I pushed Cheren off once I got my feet under me, wiping the sweat dripping down my forehead with sleeve of my pj top. Thorn and Eevee were picking themselves up as well, leaning against my legs for support as Cheren and his Pokémon came to join us in the standoff with the grunt too. "You're outnumbered now, grunt! Its four against two, you have no chance!"

The grunt grinned "But I do have strategy on my side! Patrats of Fury, attack again with your stored energy!"

I stood there stupefied as the Patrats got ready to fire off another blast of fiery energy, trying to stifle a laugh "Patrats of Fury? HAHA, is that what you tell yourself they are to make you feel better about yourself?" I pointed a finger at his chest "Your making me laugh! All you guys are are worthless Pokémon thieves who steal and torture innocent Pokémon for your own gain! And I still haven't forgotten about the whole dream yard incident either, you jerks!"

A shadow crept along the wall, walking carefully in time with my words as so not to be heard, huge leafy tail tracing the wall as the figure walked. Two bright red eyes appeared from behind the grunt's armored legs, flashing dangerously, letting me know they hadn't forgotten either.

"Thorn, get the pokeballs from his pocket!"

In an instant, a green scaly flash had jumped into the air, bring its sharp edged tail down on the cloth pocket hanging off the back of the grunts belt, several shiny pokeballs ranging from classic red and white to red, white, and blue great balls, and even grey and yellow ultra balls hitting the cave floor with metallic _clicks_ and _clanks_. Fabric exploded from the pocket, dull brown scraps of fabric fluttering to the floor.

"What the-?" the grunt began, starting to twist around to see who had waylaid him, but was stopped mid-twist by Thorn, who had bounced off the ground and sprung back up, bearing down on the pokeball I had just noticed in the grunts hands; Thorn's paper cut thin tail slashed through the grunt's fingers like they were tissue paper, a fine spritz of blood raining to the cave floor as the grunt dropped the ball to clutch at his fingers. The ball flew across the cave, sailing right into my outstretched hands.

"You bitc-"

_BBBBBBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAOO OOOM!_

The back of the cave exploded as rocks and stalagmites rained from the ceiling, dust and pebbly bits clogging the air and making it hard to breath. There was one continuous moan of screams as all of us scattered, the fainted Pokémon and grunts waking up, screaming and fainting again at the sight of the oncoming jagged rocks falling from the ceiling. I grabbed Thorn aground his itty waist, Eevee around the head, and rolled away as a refrigerator-sized rock chunk shattered in the place I was just occupying.

I coughed, the spiky feeling dust I had inhaled sticking to the sides of my throat and making them burn "Cheren?!"

There was another cough before a response rose over the rumbling cave "He-ere!" Cheren cried, a sharp "_TEP!" _assuring me he had his Pokémon as well.

_"ZEEEESTRIKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA A!"_

I shielded my eyes, looking through the still crumbling cave to see none other than Mike's Zebstrika standing in the monstrous gaping hole that now dwarfed the rest of the back cave wall, his lightning bolt horns lit up bright, little sparks of electricity falling dazzlingly to the ground, changing color rapidly as they reflected their own light spectrum.

Zebstrika stomped his hoofed foot, making the ground shake _"ZEEEEESSSS…. SSSSTRRIIIIIKAAAA!" _he bellowed. Within seconds, there was another roar, coming from behind him, and a crowd of about 15 or so Pokémon appeared behind Zebstrika, all of them rowdy like they were ready to start a riot.

"Zebstrika!"

Zebstrika turned in my direction, giving me a jovial snort and rearing up on his hind legs _"What in the world are you doing here, Mini-Mi?!"_

"AAAAHH!" there was the sound of a large rock being cracked in two, and the head grunt had reappeared again, this time a bit dustier and a bit more bruised. His two 'Patrats of Fury' were still up too, pushing aside boulders and cracking through them to free their legs. The grunt rubbed off his dusty blond head, glaring at Zebstrika "How did you all escape?!"

Zebstrika neighed smugly, sounding very proud of himself _"You bimbos had the same password for all the cells: 1-2-3-4. Ever heard of the reset button? You can MAKE your own password, losers. Not that it would have help, since I can fry electrical servers, ya know" _he stomped his foot on the ground, his jagged bolt-shaped horns lighting up again brilliantly with all the colors of the light spectrum, making the Pokémon behind him cheer wildly.

The grunt gritted his teeth "You know, I don't like being told off by a bunch of pint-sized pocket monsters that don't know their place. I can't even make since of any of your annoying babbling! You all are going back in your cells, willingly or by fo-orce?"

The grunt pivoted to see Thorn sitting on the chest of one of his Patrat, Tepig flopped over the belly of another, both rat-like Pokémon fainted.

_"Too slow" _Thorn smirked.

_"Too slow, indeed" _ Zebstrika took a step forward, jolted horns pointed towards his enemy, the rallying Pokémon behind him mirroring his movements, coming into the dim light of the cave. In the light I saw the brightly colored coats of Deerling, the zig-zaged patterns of Blitzels, and the stout forms of rock-shaped Roggenrola, all pouring from the hole in the wall and into the cavern. _"And now I do believe it is perfectly permissible to beat your sorry chain mail-wearing butt all the way to Victory Road as punishment for imprisoning us…"_

I sidled up to Zebstrika, leaning on his front flank, grinning as we crept up on the grunt "I second that motion, Zebstrika. I still haven't forgiven you for beating up my friend's Munna, so maybe we should just boot you sorry TP nerds to the next region"

_"A third here as well…" _Thorn grinned, flopping himself over the main grunts head, leaning down right into his face so he could grin right into his frantic face, red eyes gleaming with devious playfulness, causing the grunt to flinch back at the suddenness of Thorn's appearance.

"Ah, ah…" the grunt began to grope around in his robes for something, finding it, and producing a purplish-grey ball with a thick cloud of smoke swirling inside its thin glass shell "Ah! You have not heard the last of us, trainers! Team Plasma will prevail, dispite all your best efforts, and you will lose!" he threw down the ball and there was a loud crack as a flurry of thick smelling purple smoke swept around us, clouding our vision, making it impossible to see their escape.

Pokémon wailed in the back of the cave, humans coughed, rocks were crunched over, and puddles were trampled through as the cave exploded in sound.

_"ZESSSSRIIIII!"_

There was a flash of light, and Zebstrika dispersed the gaseous cloud of dusty smoke, using Discharge. The smoke billowed around us, and swept out the cave mouth…. And revealing another entrance cut into the side of the cave. The grunts had started to file frantically out of it, heading down a tight slope for the trees.

"Ah, crap!" A grunt yelled, pushing the grunt in front of him, turning the entire line into a half running, half shoving match, causing them to scatter into the trees.

"HEY! GET BACK HERE!" I yelled, dashing to the sliver of an opening between the rocks, skidding on the slightly slick ground. "I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU LOSERS YET!"

I took off down the slope, dodging rocks and jumping over exposed tree roots. There was the sound of pitter-pattering feet and the crunching of crash between toes, and Eevee and Thorn ran up in front of me, both breathing hard trying to keep up with me.

"Where are you going?!" Cheren yelled from the entrance, shaking his fist at my turned back, Tepig's cries of outrage joining his, crying high above the trees.

I launched myself up and off a rock, landing on the hill, running even faster now. "Where do you think I'm going?! I'm going after them! I'll catch up with you guys later!"

Cheren continued to yell at m back, but his annoying threats were drowned out by my heavy breathing and the pounding of my feet as I pounded my way down the slope.

"I'm coming for ya, TP! You all better hope I don't catch you, 'cause you I for a world of Snivy Butt-kicking!"

"Wait!" Cheren's voice yelled out, and the whistling of wind around a flying object hit my ears. I turn in time to catch the projectile object Cheren had launched at me. The paper around it crinkled slightly as I took a sec to look down and examine my catch; it was a role of cheepy toilet paper.

"Its dangerous to go alone! Take that, and sock it to 'em!" Cheren called.

I laughed, saluting him with two fingers, before taking off down the slope again, heading down to Route 3.

* * *

**People! Its great so hang with you all again! Its just... the four of us here... crammed into one little... end segment...**

**Thorn-"Me"**

**Mina-"Me"**

**N-" a-and me"**

**Uh, Thorn... would you stop digging your leaf blade into my ribs?**

**Thorn-"I'll move, but towards him..."*hold up tail at N***

**N-"Archeus and Caveilia above save me..."**

**Mina-"Thorn, you stop it right now!"*Hugs onto N***

**N-"Actually I don't mind being squished together anymore..."**

**Mina-*blushes*"Uh.. m-me neither..."*blushes***

**Bleck**

**Thorn-"and double bleck"**

**So this was a bit of a goofy chapter, and we got a tiny bit of a foreshadowing of what Eevee might evolve into (you did catch it, didn't you?) and we beat up some grunts, and now we are in Nacrene city and about to run into a special someone...**

**N-"and that's my cue to leave*kisses Mina's hand*"**

**See you next time!**


	16. Chapter 15: Misplaced Trust

Chapter 15: Misplaced Trust

I ran and ran and ran and kept running, the rubber soles of my black boots pounding the hard concrete underneath me, my breath becoming forced and labored, making little puffs of steam in the rapidly chilling air. The shadow-colored night had begun to trace the sky, unusually deep grey clouds mingling with the night and making the sky look like a magic potion.

The clouds spoke of rain to the wind, which stirred up the plump grey masses, making them whirl with the impending thunderstorm.

My lungs screamed for deliverance from their strenuous torture, but I spurred myself on, the sounds of my faithful Pokémon sprinting on behind me likely the only thing that was keeping me upright and kicking; minus most of the knee action that came with that. My bike-battered knees could hardly do more than quiver at this point, but they dutifully carried me on through the chilled city, wherever we were.

I had been running at top speed since my feet had first smacked the worn path of Route 3, which was little more than a stream of dirt running along a lake that emptied out from Wellspring cave and was bordered by a few fenced-in pastures. I had pushed hard to keep up with the grunts, who were all grown men and women, so, you know, they were obviously faster than me. And I've never particularly enjoyed running.

We had made it to the next town over, which I don't even know the name to, not having time to check my map, in a matter of minutes. The grunts then spread out, breaking into several subdivisions and running for the dim alleyways and warehouses that seemed to populate most of the city. I went after the biggest herd, which also contained their leader, the main grunt I had faced off with in Wellspring cave, the owner of the_…, snicker, _Patrats of Fury. These jokers may have been complete _idiots _when it came to carrying out evil plans _correctly, _but damn, they were fast.

But that drama had happened this morning; it was at least six or seven now, and I had lost sight of the group I had been trailing all day through this maze of a city. I pumped by arms harder, breathed as deeply as I could through running-parched lungs, pushed myself forward faster. Exhaustion had started to cloud my eyes, making it blurry and a bit harder to see, but my ears were wide open to accommodate the exhausted pleas from my Pokémon.

_"__Mina… we've been running forever! I love to run, but I even have my limits! Stop now, or you will be… sorry…" _Thorn huffed out, trying to keep his threat steady despite the energy he was putting forth into running. He was directly at my side, keeping up with my fevered paced like a champ, but it was obvious his energy was starting to wane.

_"__Please…. Mina… we-e-e…. lost them. There's no need to keep pushing… we need to… stop-!" _Eevee gasped from a few feet behind us. He had been lagging a bit the past hour or so, and was now looking like he was on the verge of full on collapse. I didn't want to hear his words, but his desperation to stop made me accept the situation. We had failed.

I slowly chugged to a stop.

"You can't do anything…"I muttered in defeat to myself under my breath, stooping over and letting my body enjoy some sedentary standing while my breathing recovered.

Eevee took a few more nauseous steps before flopping over at my heels, little furry head at the base of my boots; Thorn doubled over at my side, breathing heavily, one hand on the ground to keep him up right, both hooded eyes trained on me. I kept standing, my body still in 'run' mode even though my knees were quaking with the need to rest and the stiffness from my already present. My muscles were sore, and as I felt myself over for injury, I came across a few hard lumps in my caves that felt suspiciously like pulled ligaments. My stomach growled hollowly on top of it all, all the bread we ate at breakfast nothing but a simple memory now.

I looked down at my exhausted Pokémon from my sweaty nose. My unrelenting nature had pushed them to run for _hours. _At least seven hours with few breaks. _And for what? _I pondered to myself. Mike got Zebstrika back, we freed that little girl's Pokémon, unintentionally of course but we got it done all the same, so was there any legitimate reason to go after them? The pounding of my own heart and the heaving breaths of my Pokémon both concluded in a _No._

I ran stiff hand through my sweaty hair, trying to lift it up so that the breeze could catch and at least help with cooling me off. I had exceptionally thick hair, and trying to dry it of sweat provided an excellent distraction from feeling like a total villain, forcing them selfishly to run for so long. My conviction was failing me; in an essence, I had condemned myself to this, and now I was paying the price; most likely in the form of a very livid Snivy.

I sighed, loud and defiant against the near silent wind blowing by. I felt like shit, I looked like shit, and my Pokémon were gonna give me shit. _Shit. _

There was a scuffle from an alley way just ahead of us, causing all of us to snap our heads up. A trash can was barreled over, and a swarm of metal wearing idiots ran through the alley, tripping over each other in their panic. Team Plasma.

They disappeared around the corner, their metallic uniforms clanging together in a most grating way. I exploded from my spot on the ground, pushing my lethargic self on; I pounded around the corner the grunts had just disappeared around, my still untied laces flopping around the tongues of my boots. I heard the scrapes of claws and the sound of muffled cursing behind me, and soon the pounding of Pokémon feet were following me. I had the fleeting thought of telling them to lay down, and stay away, but my rage was refueled and I wasn't going to spare the energy on something they both were likely going to ignore anyway.

"Ah, crap! It's her again! Sprint, and that's an order!" The head grunt had caught sight of me again, and he started pushing his troop faster down the alley way. They ran over each other in their panic, knocking down everything they passed from windowsills and clothes lines, more than one helmet-wearing head getting a new pair of fat-bottomed bloomers strung up like a flag between the arches of their chrome domes.

Like a charging Bouffalant, I leaned my head down, charging for them with all the fury in my being. They were not going to get away this time, and I was going to make sure of that.

"DOES THIS GIRL EVER QUIT?!"

The group disappeared around the corner of another warehouse, a stream of colorful Curlz-style writing on the side of the building proclaiming it to be a décor shop. The corner of the building jutted out at a weird angle, slanting upward, just about at my perfect head height. Well I didn't see it at first.

I smacked into it full force, ramming my head into the blunt upper cutting edge. My hand few to my head, holding on to my forehead as dizziness and exhaustion pulled me to a heap on the ground. The world swirled under me, my vision going slanted from four days of no sleep and exhaustion. I moved my hands from my head, placing them slightly apart on the jolting ground, trying to keep myself up right. The center of my forehead throbbed like I was getting poked with a palm frond from the inside of my cranium, the pain coming in short and sharp bursts. My breathing hitched in my throat, making me even dizzier.

I bended down, placing my head between my knees like we had been taught for tornado drills and exhailing my choked breathes at a more even pace. Slowly, my world began to revert back to its original balance, walls not knocking into each other and the sky not falling to the earth. It was then I noticed the dark clouds above, their wispy dark centers looking full of precious rain. I suddenly felt very trapped the walls of the ally, the surrounding warehouses looming over me and trying to goad me into a corner so they could close in and consume me, or my hope, or something. A pat of rain hit my nose with a little _splat _and dripped off my nose in a single wriggling line before dropping off my chin in one drip.

The rain's own loneliness echoed in me; rain didn't fall solo, but I wasn't rain, and I was alone. Without even realizing it, my hand had been drawn to my bag, and had pulled out a crinkly bundle of something. I looked at my fingers like I was seeing them for the first time, reading the names on the crumpled envelopes in my hands and not really understanding what I was holding until I had read them over several times and recognizing my own handwriting on them. The cheery scrawl on Rekikio's; the desperate longing written plainly on the front of Gavin's. I rubbed my finger over their names, almost like just touching their names would magically make them appear, and make me feel less alone.

_"__We need to go find a Pokémon center."_

I turned my hazy vision to Thorn, who has standing a few feet behind me. He hadn't even made me jump when he came up; that's how far I was gone. His arms were hanging limply at his sides, eyes hooded, but strangely, not cruel. _"You're exhausted. Just stop now before you kill yourself with exertion." _He spoke softly, the feeling lingering in it almost missed in the light pattering of the rain starting to fall.

I crushed the letters in my hand, pushing myself to a woozy standing. I was determined to fight on. "We can't just give up now-they just went around that corner, they can't-"

_"__They went around that corner fifteen minutes ago. Their probably long gone by now…" _Thorn interrupted.

My knees quivered again, words ringing in my ears to the point I actually made a swat at them light they were just annoying bug-types hovering around my ears. _Oh, god, how long was I sitting there in that daze? _My eyes started to well up with salty tears all of a sudden. I reflexively tried to rub them away, but the emotions hanging on to the ends of them refused to budge. Exasperation. Disappointment. Exhaustion. Embarrassment. Regret. Guilt. Stupidity. Failure. All these emotions rushed over me like a tidal wave, pulling me under, selfishly not wanting to let me go. I gripped the other thing I still had in my hands from earlier, knuckles turning white. The first salty tear dripped down my cheek, and I turned and flung the roll of cheepy gas station-worthy toilet paper down the alley way, it bouncing off the ground and rolling into the darkness.

"Oh dear, what in the word do we have here?"

I my head jerked up at the voice, running my face into the chest of someone in response. After getting an unintentional good sniff of the shirt that covered the chest, which smelled like fallen leaves and Pokémon shampoo, I looked up to see who it belonged to, and was stunned when my own cobalt blue eyes met the crystalline green ones of the voice. I pushed myself away like he was on fire.

"N?! What are you doing here?" I dusted myself reflexively dusted myself off upon separating myself from his person, grimacing like he had cooties or something. What he had was crazy, but he also had eyes, making me shake myself mentally, and jumping back on the matter at hand. "Have you seen some Team Plasma grunts run through here? They'll all dressed in knight's outfits and have swords and…"

N made a small v-shaped frown. "They passed by here a while ago. I wouldn't exert yourself any more, their long gone by now." His eyes caught sight of the tears trickling down my face; to be honest I kinda forgot they were even there. He reached out a hand and enveloped it around my own, the one holding the crushed letters. He flinched a bit when they crinkled in his grasp, the unexpected noise startling him.

I yanked my hand from his, giving myself a paper cut in the process. He didn't say anything, just retracted his hand slowly back to his side.

"Don't touch me. Why are you out here when it's about to rain?" I rubbed my cut finger against my shorts, the deep red smudge hardly visible on the dark blue color of the jean material.

"Why are _you_ out here when it's about to rain and in a pajama top?" N gave me a shy lopsided smile, messing with his jeans to avoid meeting my discerning eyes.

I frowned at his deflection of my question. I started to retort when something fuzzy perched on N's shoulder caught my eye. I immediately reached out a grabby hand like an eager kid at show-and-tell, running my fingers over the thing's soft black-brown fur. N jumped a bit at my sudden lunge, but didn't shrink away; the furry thing on N's shoulder jumped a bit as well, and twisted itself around to look at me.

It was a Pokémon. It was very fluffy, with four legs; each tipped with a red furred paw, a fluffy black-grey collar around its neck similar to an Eevee, and had huge ears and a small puff of grey hair with dull red tips on the crown of its head. I got this big goofy smile on my face and leaned in to pet it harder but pulled my hand back as it leaned out and tried to nip me, trying to get back at me for scaring it. I gave it a pouty look, baring my own teeth at it and earning a growl from it in return. N's small smile returned to his face.

"It's a Zorua…. He's my friend"

I looked at the little Pokémon perched on N's shoulder; it looked back at me through mocking half closed eyes, strikingly similar to Thorn's own haughty gaze. I jumped a bit when I felt a leafy tail tracing my leg, and looked down to see Thorn had crept his way to my leg, and was now hissing at N and the strange new Pokémon on his shoulder. I started to tell of Thorn for his rudeness but stopped; N showing up right after Team Plasma fled was coincidental. Too coincidental. Suspicion rose up in my chest again.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Huh?" I looked at N again, who was shuffling a bit embarrassed at what he just said. A flicker of a blush rose up on my own cheeks, my ignorance to what he was asking making me abnormally nervous. When you're a kid, 'it' can litteraly be anything from a brownie to a steel-type, but the internal dictionary for 'it' changes to a different meaning once hormones start to kick in. And here I was, flustered by a stupid word, in the rain, in a city I'd never been to before, with a hippie who had a knack for appearing out of nowhere asking about awkward things. "Talk about what?"

He reached out for my right hand again, but I whipped it away before his fingers could grab mine, the blush on my cheeks receding and my body steeling up again. "I said don't touch me. Talk about what?"

N sighed, taking off his hat and messing with the unruly green curls underneath. "You're holding something crumpled in your hands, you're out of breath from running for how long, you just collapsed in an alley way, and to top it all off, you're crying. Any decent person cannot help but worry…" he carefully pointed out each aspect of my current condition, counting them off meticulously on his fingers like a child trying to do the multiplying nine trick.

My body almost melted for a second at his concern, but an anvil of 'duh' hit me upside the head and making me desperately want to face palm. _So that's why he was reaching for my hand… to see what I was holding…. _I felt like a monumental dork even thinking about him wanting to hold my hand. We didn't even know each other. And I wasn't in the mood for that happening tonight.

"W-well… um… bye." I stammered, turning away from the extremely perceptive green haired teen, feeling Thorn's arm wrap around my leg protectively as we walked away. I was still a touch woozy from the fall, but I was working hard not to let it show. I didn't need another reason for him to bother me. I would have been excited to see him again if we were under different circumstances, but then again, we weren't.

"Wait," N's voice called out from behind again, causing me to stop; on the inside, I was actually happy he spoke again; my legs were still too tired to do much of anything more strenuous besides standing right now.

N appeared from around my left side, hands behind his back, a slight blush rising on his cheeks. "I don't feel comfortable letting a young girl walk around at night by herself, much less when it's about to rain. Is there someplace I can escort you to?"

A strange look came over my face. _Escort me? Was he kidding?_ I snorted. The 'young girl' comment caught me off guard, and lit the spark of a flame inside me, igniting my dying fire and causing me to retort back, "I'm not some little girl who doesn't know what she's doing or where's she's at. I'm sixteen already, so I don't have to listen to you… How old are you anyway?"

"Eighteen." he said without hesitation.

_Aw, crap… _my bravado faltered. He really was older than me, practically an adult, so I, as a minor, technically had to follow what he said, or at least respect it. I glowered at him from under the brim of my hat, unsure of what to do. My confidence was running as thin as my patience, and I was coming up a blank for what to do before I just lost it and socked this kid in the face. N spoke up again.

"Well if you're not going to let me escort you anywhere, at least let me get you something to eat," my stomach growled angrily at the mention of food, making N smile a bit more. He continued, "It's about to rain, if you don't have anywhere else to be, I would be happy to sit with you for a while. It's not the battle you said you wanted, but it's the least I can do…" he sounded honestly earnest, which was quietly disarming me.

_Errrrrr…. _His innocent smile was getting to me, its awkwardness melting me down to size, making me actually want to spend some more time with the odd boy. I sighed, looking him over. What was the worst he could do? At least this way I could pick his brain a bit and see if he knew anything about TP, _and _get a free meal. Top of my list right now, other than getting a chance to squat for more than a second, was getting food down my neck. And I really didn't want to get caught in the rain. I sighed again, resigning myself to my decision and taking a quick look around, searching for my missing Eevee; he was lying, near fainted, behind a pile of old newspapers that had never made it to a trash can. I scooped him up, still being shadowed by Thorn, and traipsed back to N.

"So where are we headed?"

**OOOOOOOOO**

"What do you mean you don't serve Double Ristretto Venti Nonfat Organic Chocolate Brownie Frappuccinos, Extra Hot with Foam, and Whipped Cream Upside Down Double Blended?"

The waitress gave me a withering look. "Miss, I'm not sure that even exists."

I sighed, rubbing my head agitatedly; I had taken off my hat and it was now lying on the cherry wood bar beside me. "Well, fine then, just give me a sweet tea…" I moaned grumpily.

The waitress's face contorted into another look of pitying pain; she rubbed her pen against her temple. "Ma'am, we don't serve sweet tea either. If you want, I can bring you iced tea and some sugar…"

"UUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHH." I slammed my head into the bar, the resonating _thud _stifling all the conversation in the room; all was eerily silent, but I didn't give a fuck.

I felt a hand pat me gently on the shoulder, and I tilted my face slightly so I could peer through my hair; N's lanky fingers were clasped gently onto my shoulder. "She'll just have a hot chocolate…" he said coolly to the waitress, who scribbled down the order and walked away grumbling. After the click of her heels receded, the buzz of conversation rose up again in the room, filling the space with comforting noise.

I lifted my head from the bar, placing my chin in my hands, blowing a strand of messy black-brown hair from my face. Thorn, who was sitting on the bar stool next to me, just gave me an amused look. I stuck my tongue out at him.

N chuckled a bit, watching our exchange, "A bit high maintenance much?"

I shook myself from his grasp, as he still had his hand over my shoulder, grabbed my hat, and pushed myself down from the stool. "Ok, I'm leaving." I snapped my fingers, rousing my Pokémon, who began to follow me blindly to the door.

"Ah, no… wait…" N stuck out his arm as I tried to squeeze past him, effectively keeping me from going anywhere with his long-armed Nincada Block. "That was completely discourteous, and uncalled for. Please, I'm sorry…"

I frowned, but sat back down, the wool pillow under me squishing lightly as I settled myself back in; Thorn scaled the chair he had been previously occupying, the chair farthest away from N, with ease, plopping back down on his rump. Eevee collapsed under my chair, head tucked in his furry paws. I dropped my hat down on Thorn's head, looking around the café, trying to cool my anger down enough to talk without cussing like a sailor.

The café was a very cozy place, with light beige walls the color of vanilla pudding, and a deep coffee colored wood floor that covered the entire expanse of the establishment, even lining the stairs that lead down to the bottom half of the restaurant, where a few classy-looking tan coffee tables were placed between cushy red chairs and a few red and white polka-dotted couches. There were a few book cases set up here and there, brimming with dusty old hardbacks of the classics, fancy-looking _Grimm's Fairy Tales_ copies, and a few _(Blank) for Dummies_ books here and there. Mini potted Sable Palms grew out of sun-colored pots strewn about the café, a few of their thick leaves lying forgotten on the floor, upswept. Rain fell on the large, rectangular studio-style windows, neither hard nor soft, just raining like rain does.

N and I were sitting at the Coffee Bar on the upper deck of the café, surrounded by people on all sides; older gentlemen read newspapers and drank their coffees black, teenage girls and their moms sipping nonfat lattes and flipping through magazines, Pokémon ducking in and out of feet looking for crumbs from scones or tea cakes; Zorua was sitting in the chair right of N, batting at the cube on a chain looped around one of his pants loops.

Neither of us spoke; I kinda preferred it that way. I flicked at the sugar and nut dusted muesli biscuits the waitress had set down for us after we were seated. Ramekins of haban berry jelly sat primly next to the pyramid of mini biscuits, but I bypassed it and shoved one whole into my mouth. I chewed for a moment through the dry and doughy mass of the confectionary before swallowing and glancing remorsefully back at the plate.

"Those suck." I broke the silence with a grimace.

N looked up from staring at his thumb nails, eyes flickering to me for a moment and then to the plate of muesli biscuits, and then back to me. A ghostly smile stole its way onto his face. "Yes, they are not very tasty, are they?"

"HMMP!" I cackled, snorting in an unladylike way. The giggle was cold and coarse-feeling, but it freed me all the same and seemed to break the ice between us. "Yeah…" I rasped, suppressing the giggles still want to come.

N grinned again, that funny, sideways grin that looked like it's be better suited to an embarrassed Ducklett, but he seemed put at ease hearing me laugh. "So do you want to talk about it now?" N asked, folding his hands primly in front of him, looking perfectly gentlemanly; He slowly began to twiddle his thumbs. I gave him a sideways look but quickly ripped my eyes away.

I watched Thorn as he unraveled a string on the inside of my hat, not sure of how to respond. I sighed, letting my eyes flicker back to the fidgety teen at my side, looking at him for a moment. _He sure did fidget a lot. _He was sitting on the tips of his wild green hair, the rest of it floating freely in their own sense of space. His bangs covered his eyes bashfully, which were looking down at his fingers resting on the bar. His thin body bent effortlessly to sit upright in the chair, his posture that of an aristocrat.

"If I tell you something about me, you have to tell me something about you." I said slowly; this was my deal.

N nodded slowly, making his bangs flop with his movements. "It's only fair…. but the other gets to ask the questions."

I nodded as well. At least this gave me control over what information I could wrangle out of this guy.

"We'll I'll go first, why were you crying?" N blinked.

I bit my lip, thinking of the slightly damp crinkled letters nestled once again in my bag. Trying to explain my irrational feelings and strange motives was like trying to explain yaoi to a jock; it just won't go smoothly. And if someone actually wanted the full story behind the emotions, that was an even bigger mess I tended not to want to dabble with. I thought about backing out now; I could just grab Thorn and book it out the door and not look back. Something was telling me to trust N though, not quite like I was obligated to, but because I knew he'd understand somehow.

"Uh… I was just really upset that I couldn't catch Team Plasma… and… uh…"I stammered; _wow, this was turning _really_ awkward, _really_ fast._ "…well… the letters were ones I had written to a few missing friends of mine. Uh, one was to my brother, the other to one of my best friends who moved away a few years ago… I really miss them…" the words just started to tumble out on their own, happy to be freed from my mind, allowing someone else to share in its burden. I didn't regret telling him at all, I realized with a blossoming thought in my mind.

N looked surprised. "Your brother's missing?"

I nodded solemnly. Thorn's eyes had flicked up from disassembling my hat, suddenly interested in the situation.

"That's so unfortunate…" N said, casting his eyes down.

I shrugged, used to the whole 'poor you' thing I had been getting since I was eight and my dad died. "So, uh…. My turn… what's your family like? Your friends?" I was about to ask about his knowledge of TP, but at the last minute, _that _bumbled out. I don't know why I was suddenly interested in N's personal life, rather than any connections to Team Plasma, but he didn't seem too on guard, so I quieted my nervous musing. I watched him carful as he responded.

N stopped messing with his thumbs and went to playing with the pendant on his biggest necklace, the one shaped like a black sphere with a few red and blue blades cutting through its sides. "I'm adopted…." He began, it being my turn to look surprised. "My father's a bit of a harsh man, really into rules and power, but I think he does it for the right reasons….." his tone sound forced, but not without admiration. "I have two sisters, both three years older than me. They aren't father's real children either, but their much closer to him than I am. Both are very intelligent and caring…" N smiled, sounding very fond of his sisters, his tone completely different from when he was talking about his father.

"What about your friends?"

"My… Pokémon… are my friends…." N shuffled a bit more. "I'm not really all that good with words… I'm much happier being by myself… doing math equations…" N smiled wryly.

I snorted. "You're into _math_?"

"Yes… it was always my favorite subject the sages taught me… er I mean… I was homeschooled…" N ruffled slightly, a light blush rising to his cheeks.

I snickered again. "Are you serious? Math was my worse subject. I never even passed Geometry, and I barely passed Algebra 2 with a D!" I cackled. This kid continued to surprise me, but not in the way I was expecting.

N smiled lightly, but his body language turned serious again, eyes boring into my forehead. "So, um… next question…. Do you believe in things you cannot understand?"

"Huh?" I raised my eyebrows in surprise. _Well this was taking an unexpected turn…more unexpected than the rest of the night had already been, and that was saying something._

N elaborated, "I want to see things no one else can see… describe all the things no one can understand. I want to see the truths inside pokeballs…. are you the same?"

"What?"

N's smile faltered a bit, his face still smiling but becoming sad. "I thought you might feel that way, but I feebly hoped it would not be true…. Alas… it is not…"

"I don't understand…" I began to lean forward more, coming closer to N; a deep-throated hissing began to rise from Thorn behind me.

N turned my direction, locking eyes with Thorn even though he was talking to me "Every time I encounter you, your Pokémon always seem to be hurt, or just healing. When I first met you in Accumula town, Thorn still had the faint markings of a burn, and he told me himself that he had been burned and was still recovering from it…."

Thorn's hissing heightened another decibel.

N began to gesture at Eevee on the ground, turning his emerald eyes from Thorn to Eevee. "And now I meet you here, and you have one Pokémon who is near fainted from exertion and looks to be catching a cold-" Eevee sneezed up a gooey clod of mucus, further proving N's deductions. "-and once again your partner is suffering from injury, only this time it seems to have been much more severe."

I lighted my gaze from N to Thorn, who had started shuddering in anger. He was still recovering from the Munna incident when we first arrived in Striaton City, as well as the additional damage from the Dream Yard escapade, and the burns from the gym; he was covered almost head to tail in ace bandages and Band-aids and medical tape, his skin smelling lightly of burn salve. I realized in horror that N was indeed right: that my Pokémon seemed to continue to suffer with me. Not guilt, but anger surged over me, and the urge to give him a hook to the jaw was returning with a vengeance.

"You are a trainer that follows her ideals… like so many other people out there…" N began softly, his tone turning bitter as he continued. "You push your Pokémon past their limits for your own gain… you're making them suffer… Why can't you realize it, it's all your fault, it's all your doing." N's voice got faster and faster, barely understandable above the rest of the chatter of the room and it seemed like he wasn't even speaking to me anymore. "You're one of the reasons Pokémon can never be perfect beings… the reason why Pokémon liberation is the key to our future… the reason Pokémon and humans should be separated."

"I can understand if you can't handle it, but the truth is-"

I was done with this; I jumped up from my seat, planting a finger right into the middle of his boney chest, Thorn's angry hissing backing me up.

"Right now your sounding an awful lot like those Team Plasma jerks who want people and Pokémon separated for their own stupid reasons! Well, I got news for you, hippie boy, there's no way I'm giving my Pokémon up to anyone, regardless of what they try to say! Maybe that's a selfish thing to say, maybe it just proves your theory right… but, dammit, their all I have. You will NEVER see me abusing a Pokémon, and you will NEVER get me to let go. I am going to do what I want and you and the rest of your Team Plasma cronies will NEVER stop me.

"Kiss my ass, hippie. Live a nice life, I'm outta here." I finished with a snarl.

I grabbed my hat, grabbed Eevee, and stormed my way past N, and through the double doors of the café; he didn't even attempt to block me this time. I took a single long stride, and then a hopping one, moving my legs faster and faster until I was running out into the pouring rain, the jagged lightning above my only guide to where I was going.

**OOOOOOOOO**

N watched her go, her bouncy pony tail jumping rapidly as she ran out through the rain, her boots stomping through the dirty puddles of city grime. His eyes were a bit hazy, but he could still make out her form as she charged through the rain; he had obviously hit a nerve.

A hissing caught him off guard, causing him to turn and see Mina's Snivy still sitting in the chair furthest away from him at the Coffee Bar. Thorn looked absolutely livid, red eyes burning like fresh blood.

_"How dare you say that to hhelper, cretin. Who do you think you are, making audacious assumptions like that?!" _in the blink of an eye, Thorn had slithered from his chair all the way to N's, pointy nose shoved in N's face. He was waving his razor sharp tail under N's nose, but he did not flinch away from it; he had come much closer to dangerous Pokémon before and he had learned from experience that keeping a calm demeanor usually helped calm the down as well.

Thorn's snarling continued before N could get off a single syllable of a word. _"I have seen suffering like no one else has, and you will never truly understand it until you have seen it through my eyes, and I can tell you, that girl has been kinder to me than anything else I've ever known in this world._

_ "I swear, if you EVER dare make her upset like that again, I will rip out your throat and jump rope with your vocal cords, do you hear me? And that is not a threat; it's a promise, Team Plasma filth." _The hiss was chilling and ran true.

Thorn jumped from N's seat, landing on the ground with perfect form, and pushed his way through the doors of the café, running off into the rain after his master; a blind and sad, faithful Pokémon.

N sat back, face in his hands, flicking at his bangs restlessly. He was very nervous all of a sudden, his calm demeanor fading away like paint from a rotting wooden fence. He had originally set out to find out more about this girl that seemed to keep interfering with their plans, trying to find out where she stood on all of it, but somewhere along the way, he had actually wanted to know more about her. Her Pokémon always followed and protected her faithfully, but they always seemed to pay for it with their well-being. This confused him to no end.

He recomposed himself just in time, as the waitress had finally came back with their orders; he smiled at her numbly, the point in time when they ordered seeming so much longer than ten minutes ago. The waitress barely batted an eye at the fact that one of her patrons was missing and just wandered away like it was nothing.

N held his cup of herbal tea with both hands wrapped around the base of the mug, the heat from within starting to melt his cold exterior. He squeezed a dollop of honey from the honey bear the waitress had set before him, eyes on Mina's steaming cup of hot chocolate and Thorn's sandwich-sized vanilla glazed scone. Mina has taken the time to ask what Thorn had wanted, and ordered it, even though it was one of the more expensive confectionaries on the menu, claiming she could pay for it even though her eyes had flickered uncertainly to her wallet; and on top of that, she seemed to understand Thorn, which made no sense, because she had said it herself she could not hear the voices of Pokémon. Yet another thing about her that was driving him mad just trying to figure her out.

N took a sip of his tea, recoiling at its sweetness. He had been lost in thought and had put too much honey in his tea, its thick sweetness disrupting the gentle flavor of the herbs his tea had been steeped in. Pushing the cup away, his thoughts wondered back to what Mina had been saying. She had fearlessly stood up for what she believed in, though she was being attacked very prejudicially. N smiled, remembering her fire; he actually respected her even more now for that.

She was continuing to be an enigma to him, he thought pleasantly. He actually was beginning to like her a little, regardless of their different views. He reached in his pocket, taking out a few damp bills, and tossed them on the counter, leaving the abandoned hot chocolate and scone untouched.

Wordlessly, he walked out into the rain himself, disappearing into the dripping night.

* * *

**Hey-o! Pokegirl here... alone for the first time... in a while...**

**Mina's off being moody over a certain green-haired someone, Thorn's there comforting her, and N's off doing... whatever he does in his spare time...**

**So, I decided to try a little something different, telling a segment in N's point of view rather than Mina's. How'd I do? I was also thinkin' about doing a couple of chapters in Thorn's POV too, but we'll see...**

**So the whole scene with the drinks actually is true: there is such a thing as whatever coffee Mina tried to order, and you can't get sweet tea in the state of New York, which was what the Unova region was based off of soo... LOL**

**...Wah... Its to friggin' quiet around here... I need to do kidnap someone... maybe N again... or even Ghetesis...**

**So, I actually reached 2,000 views the other day, and I forgot to mention it, so here I am now. A HUGE Zekrom-sized thank you to all my wonderful readers, favorites, reviewers, and followers! You all rock my serperiors! Keep reading and Reviewing! And a ginormous Zekrom-and-Reshiram-sized thanks to two of my best peps: Iluvcandyiluvcandy and pokeninja6600! You guy's awesome commentary, epic reviews, and all around amazingness help keep me writing and laughing! You guys rock my face to the moon!**

**I'm headin out now, see you all next time!**


	17. Chapter 16: A Clear Mind

Chapter 16: A Clear Mind

"Eleven," N mumbled numbly, hardly glancing at the problem written on the screen, hazy emerald eyes wondering away from the holographic scene in front of him. The dark brown X-transceiver was propped up against a chunk of wood that resembled a doorstop, its cast scenes flickering in and out with the poor signal, and N made no move to try and correct it.

The three sages on screen murmured appreciatively of his intelligence, chattering with each other like a flock of old ladies praising a child who had said something witty; they had been at it for only half an hour and N had already blown through two-thirds of the arithmetic commissions they had laid out for him today, just like usual. On the screen, Giallo had busied himself erasing the mini chalkboard in his hands, and began to scratch out the next equation in squeaky white chalk.

N's mind wandered away from the jumpy X-transceiver screen, looking instead around the dusty corners of his current location and wishing he was outside. He was still in Nacrene city, staying in an old warehouse on the outskirts of town. While it lacked many of the common comforts the domestic population had grown accustomed too, it had a certain natural feel to it that N had always loved.

All the thick-wooded walls were still holding on tight to the foundation and the roof was still intact, though the rest of the house had fallen victim to the wilderness outside its cracked windows: plants of many species, all species N could identify flawlessly just upon examination of their leaves, writhed their way under the floor boards and through slits in the windows; wild Pokémon had flocked to the dilapidated shelter, craving shade from the elements-Patrats and Pidoves nesting in the roof, Sewaddles living in the holey floorboards, and Cottenees floating gleefully about in the rafters- all Pokémon N had grown quite fond of, all his beautiful new friends . Zorua sat a few feet away on the ground, watching the fluffy creatures float about the ceiling, eyes tracing their fairy-like movements with quick red eyes.

"N? N! N?"

N was shocked from his mindless musing as the screen blipped again and suddenly exploded with noise. Gorm, looking very serious, was holding up the newest problem on the screen, a complicated-looking rational route theorem written out before him. N let out a sigh of relief; this was nothing serious. His mind began to work its way through the problem with the efficiency of a calculator, his brain spitting out the simple answer to the strenuous-looking problem in a matter of moments.

"X=6, X= 9/23, and X=2…. Are we done yet?" He tried to bite the cross tone out of his voice, but decidedly gave up the moment he spoke the last few words.

On screen, Gorm shook his head. "Lord N, you seem exceedingly distracted today. Is something troubling you?"

N put his chin in his hand, looking off at Zorua as it batted at a Cottonee hovering teasingly above its head. _Something troubling me… is it even worth calling it that? _He frowned to himself. As far as he could tell, the only _physical _problem today was just his apathy. "No, nothing is the matter. I am perfectly well, my mind is just elsewhere today…." _the harsh words of a certain fiery brunette to be exact. _N added silently with a slight grimace.

"N, do you remember why we practice every day?" Rood asked carefully, raising his eyebrows as he joined Gorm on screen.

N smiled lightly from behind his hands. "A sharp mind grows dull very quickly if it is not honed every day, and that is why we suffer through this tedious work on an irkingly regular basis…" N went silent for a moment, a little taken aback by his own sass in the remark, though he quickly recovered with a simple smile. "Mmm, next question?"

"Yes… yes, yes…" the sages on the screen chirped, flitting about like a trio of Pidoves that had flown over a pile of food several times before finally realizing where it was. N smiled, mind wandering off again.

_'…I will rip out your throat and jump rope with your vocal cords….' _he thought of Thorn's promise. It had sounded startlingly convincing.

N smiled darkly at the thought of bleeding out while a two-foot tall grass snake skipped rope in front of him with his bleeding throat cords. _I wonder how many people would pay to see that…. _N though bitterly; for some reason, he hoped Mina would not be part of that faction. Still, if he could _save _the poor grass snake before something as… unsavory as that could happen, all would win in the end; he wondered if he had it within himself to do such a thing-to rip a devoted Pokémon away from its trainer. _Though I'm positive Mina would be doing the 'ripping out of throat cords' that time…. _N thought with a light smile.

N's eyes flicked to the screen, a weird look coming over his face as his eyes ran over the chalk scrawling. "Are you kidding?" he asked the sages disrespectfully blunt, a little unsure of what he was seeing. _Well this has caught me off guard…_

Gorm just tapped the board again with the butt of the chalk. "Your answer, Lord N?"

N rolled his eyes, a small grin once again on his face, remembering the answer to the first question the sages had ever taught him. He had always thought it was a joke, but never had the courage to actually ask. "Forty-two. The answer to the universe, everything, and life itself is forty-two."

"Just wanted to make sure you were paying attention. Now, on to world history…" there was shuffling of papers and books on screen as the chalkboard disappeared, and a hefty-looking well used history book took its place. Gorm patted the top lightly, searching for another explicit reaction from N's stoic face, almost daring him to speak out of turn again.

N obliged to the look, blowing a few strands of tea green bangs out of his eyes, changing the subject. "Actually if you didn't mind, I have an appointment to keep today, so if all possible, we can postpone this to later? Punctuality in all endeavors is very important to father…. We wouldn't want to disappoint, now would we?" he raised an eyebrow at the sages, playing his trump card; he felt incredibly guilty about it on the inside, but the matter at hand was far too important to _him himself _for it to have to wait another soul-sucking two hours. He banished the guilt to the lower recesses of his gut, where it pledged to await him later, to which he bit his lip and tried to keep a straight face as he watched the sages for their decision.

The sages on screen mumbled a bit amongst themselves, finally coming to an accord and releasing N from his studies with stern mentionings to be back at the castle by three. N gave them a nod of consent before reaching across to the pallet he had been sleeping on, grabbing a few pokeballs, and slipping through a low ivy-infested window into the fresh air outside.

His sudden clarity was breathtaking; he had the courage to ask the question now.

**OOOOOOOOO**

"Mina! Mina? Mina! I want to tell you something!"

"Bianca, calm down. Gimme a sec…." I mumbled, head down in my sketchbook, pencil scratching feverishly trying to catch the exact form of the shadows casting over my subject.

A full day had passed since the confrontation with N-

"Mina, stop sketching your dopey Snivy, and listen to me!"

"Bianca, I said give me a sec. I want to catch these perfect shadows while they're still here…."

That night after I had ran out into the rain, Thorn at my heels, I had rushed straight to the Pokémon center down by the train tracks I had completely missed charging into town earlier. Once inside, I gave both my boys to the Nurse Joy on duty; she had given me a weird look, considering I was soaking wet in a pajama top and short shorts, but she did as I asked when I told her it was an emergency. Thorn had been returned in a matter of minutes, energy high, wounds slightly more faded, and a mouth puckered for a string of profanities launched at the Audino aiding the nurse for apparently spilling hydrogen peroxide in his ear; Eevee had taken some time more to get healed, and didn't come back quite nearly as spry. Still, I rolled with it.

We hadn't eaten at the restaurant, so this was my way of giving them the energy to train. It was a selfish, shallow move on my part, but I had been so overwhelmed by rage, I wasn't in the mood for good decisions. Or really decisions at all. Thorn and I sat in silence, once Thorn had gotten out all of what he had wanted to say at the poor normal-type, waiting for Eevee to come back, each seething with rage, but not communicating exactly what we were so angry about to each other. Again, I was just rolling with it.

The second I heard the wheels of the hospital cart returning Eevee to me, I was out in a flash back into the rain, heading for the forest on the other edge of the city, which I now knew was called Nacrene city thanks to a quickie look at the town map, to train. That entire night in the pouring rain, we trained, ambushing whatever poor, stupid Pokémon we could find. I got to work with a newly healed Eevee some more, learning he indeed knew moves other than Tackle- Bite and Quick Attack- and getting a good feel for his battling style. We put it all to good use beating up Tympole that were frolicking around in the rain like giddy children, even getting a chance to battle with a few die-hard battle girls and black belt trainers up on a rocky peak towards the edge of the woods for good measure. After training all night, and coming in soaking wet, we all slept the day away yesterday, blissfully without nightmares or freakish images, just as Fennel said, not waking up till this morning.

Which is where we are now, chilling on the outskirts of town in a patch of forest that lead off into the inner reaches junglistic Pinwheel Forest (which the guide book I had nabbed from the Pokémon center clearly stated something about bug-types living thought the forest and there was no way in hell I was going in any deeper than right here). I was stretched out in the shade of a big gangly tree, dry grass tickling my arms, Thorn basking in the sun a few feet away, ripping apart a flower, and Bianca, who was kneeling next to me, pestering me about something I just _had _to know right this minute, despite trying to catch the shifting shadows in Thorn's scaly coat. Ever since the whole hair incident, I had not being drawing unless I had something right in front of me to copy, in this case, Thorn as he mauled a poor daisy.

Any indication that it had rained yesterday had been eradicated by the bleaching sun, leaving most of the world dry and brittle again, however a few lucky plants still were plump with health from the down pouring rain, including the daisy Thorn was now contently ripping apart right now_. Er… or did… include… that…. Flower…. Once…_

"Bbbbuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuttttttttt tt Mmmmmmmmmiiiiinnnnnaaaaaaaaa aaaaa! There is something really awesome I want to tell you!" Bianca whined, wringing her fingers together impatiently, fidgeting slightly.

I sighed, dropping my eraser-less pencil in the grass and shifting my attention to her. I had invited her out here with me this morning as a way of social therapy, but ever since she got out here, she had been brimming with excitement to tell me _something _that couldn't wait long enough for me to simply sketch out a red-eyed weed and a flower. "Fine, you have my _full_ attention now, Bianca, what the hell do ya wanna to tell me?"

Bianca, happy to finally be acknowledged, grinned from ear to ear. "Oshawott finally learned Water Gun! It was so awesome, we were just battling, and then all of sudden _BAM _water all over that Lillipup. Like a boss!" she lifted up her arms, flexing her puny muscles like a wanna-be strong man.

"Uh-huh," I mumbled, genuinely happy for my friend, but quickly losing interest in the conversation. I turned back to doodling Thorn, who had now stuck the half-plucked flower into his mouth and was now munching on it. He had been as moody as I had been the past day, and hadn't been saying much lately. I had shrugged it off; he was probably planning world domination or something stupid like that.

"And I won the Basic Badge from the Nacrene gym!"

THAT caught my attention. "Blond headed goofball of a friend say what?"

Bianca kept grinning, seeming to almost ooze rainbows. "Yup, I made a beeline for the gym the second I got into town after returning that little girl's Pokémon to her. Yup, I swung in, on the first try, and won! I was so proud of my little Oshy and Munna and Lillipup!" Bianca's grin widened even further.

_"Disturbing…" _Thorn sing-songed from his rock, uttering his first words all day. Other than yelling at me to make him food this morning. And to give him a bath (which I replied by throwing a bucket, and a sponge at him). Also other than saying he wanted to start taking Medieval Weaponry classes (which I replied again by throwing a bucket at him). So, his first acknowledgeable, semi-sane words of the day.

I ignored his snark, and wheeled myself around so I was staring right at Bianca. "You won already?! I don't even know where it is!"

_"Newsflash, Mina is a bigger airhead than originally thought. The world is shocked silent."_

_"Fuck you-" I growled under my breath at him, Bianca thankfully not taking any notice._

"Oh, it right towards the northern end of town, and it's in a museum! Oh, the museum is so cool, they have this huge dragon skeleton, with all the itty bitty finger bones and all, oh and this really pretty shiny black stone and-"

I was up on my feet in a flash, grabbing up my bag and hat from the ground with a wild smile on my face. "Screw the museum, I want my badge! Thorn, let's go!" I plucked him up by the tail, lifting him into the air momentarily before dropping him back to ground; he landed gracefully on his feet.

"Bu-bu-but, wait…." Bianca started, looking very confused.

I gave her a quick salute. "I don't have time to sit around and chat, I've got a gym battle to win!" I took off in the tall beige grass, sending clusters of Pidove spiraling into the air around like a grey dust storm, their frantic caws drowning out the rest of Bianca's nonsensical mumblings.

Flanked by Thorn on my right side, I headed for town.

**OOOOOOOOO**

I approached the shiny deep blue mailbox, slightly dragging my feet as I slowly walked forward. Thorn was at my ankles, watching me carefully like I was a bomb about to go off, and he didn't know which wire to snip. I was being hit by such a wall of sudden emotions, I might as well blow up-my red wire was right in front of me but malfunctioning right now.

My feet had lead me here, to the only outgoing blue mail box in the city, instead of the gym. It was almost like my subconscious was trying to tell me something, trying to set me free. I looked over the unassuming metal structure, almost scared out of my mind about what I was about to do. My hand shook as I reached into my bag and dug around for the letters; after N had discovered me with them in my hands, they had began to start to feel like more of a burden instead of a connection to my friends, seeming to weigh down my bag and my feelings. So what was the only logically answer to this screwy equation? Ditch the evidence, forget the hippie and get over yourself. Repeating it until it became a mantra in my head, I reached forward and opened the shoot door, the rusty hinges giving a grating _sctraceeeeiiiik_.

_"You know I'm worried about you, right? Your sanity's never been absolutely stable, and that worries me… even more now…" _Thorn's voice cut through my thoughts, his strangely caring-sounding words catching me off guard.

I smiled. I smiled in the midst of everything. Thorn was being... gentle... for once. It was surprising but... welcoming. _Being cared for by another; _the thought warmed my up on the inside. Really warmed me up; _toasty _like all of those cheesy greeting-card commercials. I turned around, reaching down to rub his head without even attempting to hide the smile on my face. "There is no need to worry, Thorn. I'll be ok, and I'll always take care of you, but of course I'll give you a hard time while doing it, and I don't expect any less from you." I gave him a thumbs up. "Reality check complete."

Thorn's twisted mouth gave way to a small smile; it was gentle and caring, totally unlike the smirk he often wore. It was a nice little smile, a little fang hanging out from the top of his lip, still giving him that distinctive 'Thorn' look to him; it was definitely a smile all his own.

Feeling much better, I pushed myself back up to my feet, making a second attempt for the mail box. I opened the hatch, the sound once again making me twitch at its sharpness, and slid the letters in, hearing them land with the rest of the mail in the pile with a soft thud.

My conscience was clear; time to head for the gym.

**OOOOOOOOO**

The Nacrene city gym was indeed a very large establishment, and without a doubt, a very accomplished museum. A huge corkboard set up outside the lavishly stone decorated entrance, giving information about a new exhibit featuring several items recently dug up at the Desert Resort, and prices and such for tribal drum classes. I eyed the colorful writing and cheery looking pictures on the fliers; _maybe NOT 'screw the museum' after all…_

I approached the huge stone arch that stretched over the doorway into the museum, marveling at the extensive stonework that decorated the entire front of the building. Soft ledges, and steep drops, and academic swirls of stone incased the front of the building, reminding me a bit of the trainer's school in Stration.

I felt something pushing at my legs, and looked down to see Thorn shoved up against me, trying to push me forward with his jabby little elbow. _"Let's go, let's go already! I'm ready to show up Bianca and Cheren again, but to do that we need that gym badge, so LET'S GO."_

I snorted, "Pushy-" but did as he asked, reaching for the double doors' handles, grabbing one of the thin metal handles in my hand, and yanking it open.

And to my disbelief, none other than _bloody fucking N_ popped out.

For the second time in three days, I screeched his name in surprise. "N?!" Anger stubbornly bubbled up in me at the sight of his face again, its resilience blinding me momentarily as my world flashed red; behind me, Thorn immediately started hissing, tail raised on end, eyes open wide and angry.

N held up a hand. "Before you even start, I want to say something…." N paused, eyes locked on mine, seeing if I was going to react. I didn't, besides scowling ( though I really, _really _wanted to beat the kid's ass); he continued "I want so say I'm sorry."

"Huh?" I gaped, surprised at how firm the kid in front of me sounded, the complete opposite from the awkward boy from two days ago. Thorn's hissing stopped, his face now scrunched up in a question mark. "The fuck you-"

"I want to apologize for my behavior the other night. It was uncalled for and not publically appropriate in any way. I am sorry for raising such a fuss…"

I put my hands on my hips, flashing him a show of teeth. "Well that's all fine and good, but it doesn't sound like your apologizing for calling my beliefs wrong and telling me I'm basically a tyrant when it comes to m-"

N stuck a finger to my lips, shushing me, a slight grimace on his face. "You didn't let me finish. I also wanted to say I respect you for standing up for your beliefs, even when under the attack of another…"

" I still-"

"Not letting me finish…" N sang, gently placing his hand completely over my mouth, silencing me completely. "I was blinded by my own truths to see what was so plainly in front of me, the strength of a dedicated trainer, and the commitment of her Pokémon. I'm trying to tell you I'm sorry for being a bigot, and I want you to forgive me…." N backed away, releasing me from silence; my hand rose up to touch the sides of my mouth where his hand had just been, the warmth of his fingers still there. I had desperately wanted to bite him, or something to get him off of me, but something had held me back.

N spoke again. "My conviction is strong as steel, hard as a rock… and I want to see how strong yours is. I challenge you to a battle... for your beliefs."

I stood speechless, not uttering a single word even though my mouth had been freed from silence. N's eyes burned with determination, the emeralds within shining like they were in the light of a fire. I realized with certain surety that he had the presence or power, that he had been raised to be someone magnificent. I was in awe of his commitment, his pure commanding power, despite the circumstances. _Fuck you brain, for screwing me over again- _I snarled at myself; didn't that shit happen just last night too?

"If you do not wish to battle, I will step aside, and you will leave me to think whatever you wish me to. Just say the word, and I shall leave, never to bother you again…" N shifted slightly, stepping aside so that I had a clear path to the door, arm out like a valet presenting a car to his master. While his eyes burned with conviction, there was something sad, almost disappointed look in the depths of them. Like he could genuinely feel for me and my situation, almost like he was trying to _help _me.

I snorted. _Well you sure are barking up the wrong tree. _This was... entertaining. He was still trying to prove me wrong, but he was being... kind about it. I felt my malice towards him disappear; I turned my eyes on N. "Don't even play like that with me. You came out of your way to come see me, and I know you're not going to leave until you get what you want or I prove to you how right I am. So I accept your challenge." I smiled a wide mouthed, determined grin, hands still on hips. If he was going to call me wrong, I was going to fight with every ounce of my being and I wasn't going to lose.

N's own eyes lit up, the deep sadness in the back disappearing in a flash of green clarity. He took a step back, the emotion draining from his face and being replaced by the pure need to win. "But if you lose, you will forfeit Thorn over to me."

"What?!" I screeched again at this hippie-punk's _audacity_.

"You heard me; these are my stipulations. You win, I leave you alone. I win, Thorn will be released to the wild to live out his days as he pleases. My belief verses your own: Pokémon with trainers vs. free Pokémon." N spoke without emoting anything, hands clasped behind his back, rocking back and forth on his heels yet refusing to look at me.

_"DO I GET A SAY IN THIS?! I'm not going with you, you Woodstock reject!" _Thorn screeched in his own right to be aghast.

I ignored him, balling up my preferred string of curse words and instead spitting it out as a spit glob to my side and trying something new. "Fine. I accept your _stipulations._"

"Then let's begin…. Pidove, I need your help!" N suddenly energized, materializing a pokeball from his pocket, pressing the button in its front once to activate it, and then throwing it high into the air. The ball popped, a tiny grey bird from within appearing, taking flight into the air as it sang out its cry.

I jumped back, reaching for a pokeball of my own. "Eevee, let's go!" I whipped his ball out, lurching forward on one foot, throwing the capsule into the air. The red ball popped, and there was a cry from within the bright blue flash of light, a big eared, fluffy-tailed Eevee forming from the bright flash, landing on his toes as skillfully as Thorn.

"Let's begin. Pidove, use gust!" Pidove rose high into the air, flapping its wings rapidly, creating a mini whirlwind of leaves and sticks and dirt, forcing it down directly on Eevee.

_"EEEVE!" _Eevee cried into the wind, sharp rocks and twiggy bits raking over his face painfully. I felt that same lurch I always did when I saw my Pokémon getting hurt, the biting on the inside of my stomach that hummed and burned all the way up to my ears and made me want to retch; I swallowed the pain and focused to getting Eevee out of there.

"Eevee, get out of there! Use Quick Attack!" Eevee gritted his teeth, pushing himself to his feet in the midst of the powerful gust. Summoning his strength, he took a step forward, getting his feet under him, and bounded upward in a flash of silvery light, aiming for Pidove. The attack landed square on Pidove's chest, causing its flapping to falter, and the dust storm dissipated.

N smiled grandly as the battle played out above him, the abrupt display of admiration stunning me momentarily speechless. "Your Pokémon shows amazing strength! So, Pidove show them your speed! Quick Attack!" Pidove began to flap backwards on N's command, powering up to speed forward for the next attack. Suspended in the air, Eevee was a goner unless I could do something.

"Eevee, don't let it get away! Grab onto it using Bite!" I yelped. In an instant Eevee had latched its teeth around one of Pidove's wings, causing it to flinch and start flapping its wings wildly, trying to shake the persistent Pokémon off. Eevee held on with all his might, gnashing his teeth together so hard on the spastic Pokémon that a small trickle of blood started to drip down Pidove's dust-colored wings. Throughout the attack, I began to notice the pair had started drifting to the ground, Eevee's weight too much for Pidove's tiny wings to handle. This gave me an idea.

"Eevee, drag it to the ground!" I shouted up to him; we locked eyes for a moment before he gave me a wink and started jerking downwards on Pidove's wing, knocking it off balance and sending the two plummeting to the ground. As Eevee twirled through the air to the hard ground below, I have him his final command. "Send it into the ground with Tackle!"

_"DDDOOOOOOVVVV!" _Pidove shrieked, tumbling to the ground, Eevee still clamped on its wing _"MASTER!"_

N gritted his teeth. "Pidove, use Growl! Try to scare if off you!" Pidove put on a brave face through the pain, turning and chirping harshly in Eevee's direction, causing him to flinch in surprise.

Eevee let go off Pidove's wing, but not out of fear, but following my orders, letting the startled flying-type continue to swirl through the air chaotically. They began to near the ground, Pidove still frantic and disorientated, Eevee starting to somersault over to Pidove. He leaped onto Pidove, pushing them down and into the cement; they landed with the sickening sound of wings snapping.

Eevee was lying flat out on Pidove's chest, face contorted in pain from the forceful impact. With a harsh-sounding breath, he pushed himself up, revealing a completely KO'd, and slightly crushed, Pidove. Eevee took a few more wobbly steps in my direction, his gait becoming balanced again. He gave me a cute grin, smiling through the shallow scratches he had received from Pidove's violent flailing.

N tipped his hat down, smiling lightly. "You two work very well together, but once again at the cost of your Pokémon's health. But I do suppose that is the way of the battle…" N looked up, emerald green eyes glistening with the almost guilty thrill of the battle. Within a blink, the thrill was gone and N was stoic again. "I won't let you win this time, though! My truths have no time to be delayed, Timburr, I need you!"

N released his next Pokémon, the red and white ball bursting open, and a grey Pokémon with pulsing veins shot out and into the air, landing on the cement ground on its knees, one hand smashing into the ground to keep its balance. A few seconds later a large chunk of wood came plummeting down as well; Timburr caught it expertly with one hand and swung it around with an effortless grace like it was a toothpick, and not a 30-pound chunk of wood.

_"Come at me, teddy bear, I'll pummel you into the ground like a sign post." _Timburr smirked mockingly, nonchalantly tossing the massive wood chunk in one hand as he made his threats.

"Eevee, can you still battle?" I asked my shaky Pokémon.

_"I've got it under control! Just tell me what to do!" _Eevee chirped, jumping up in front of me as if he hadn't just plummeted into the ground from twenty feet in the air. He shook his head wildly, long floppy ears flopping all over the place, smiling brightly.

"Timburr, Low Kick!"

Timburr was fast; he was up and upon Eevee in a matter of seconds, sweeping along the ground in one fluid motion and sending a puzzled, wide-eyed Eevee tumbling into the dirt, sending up a thick cloud of dry dust, a group of nesting bug-types scattering as the dirt clouded the air and thickened everything.

"Eevee!" I called, waiting breathless for his reply, but none came.

As the dust began to settle, a very please looking Timburr was standing at N's side, leaning on its hunk of wood, eyes locked on the crumbled heap that was my Pokémon. I followed his eyes, letting out a small gasp when I caught sight of my battered Eevee; it had been a one hit KO, knocking Eevee senseless in one very well honed move. The retch I had suppressed earlier came back with a vengeance, and I felt something dribble over my lips as I tried frantically to cover my face.

N gave me a puzzled look. "Were you not aware that normal-types as weak against fighting types? I was a touch startled when you did not retract your Eevee…"

"Eevee, return," I mumbled numbly, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. I really had no idea what a normal-type's weaknesses were, much less anything else about it. I bit my lip, eyeing Thorn tensely. _If I lose this battle, what will that mean for me and N? What will he think of me then? What about Thorn? So much more was riding on this than just pride._

I slapped my cheeks hard, shaking myself of my pessimistic thoughts; this was no time to worry about what some bushy-headed hippie thought of me right now, this was the time to fight. "Thorn, you're up!" I commanded.

Thorn closed his eyes, taking his time walking forward, shaking his butt slightly as he walked. Once he reached a suitable distance from me, he cracked open one eye to stare down at Timburr, who was looking slightly confused. Nevertheless, the egotistic fighting-type sneered a threat at Thorn anyways.

_"You're about to join your friend at the end of my board, grass snake." _Timburr threatened, earning a stern look from N; he just ignored it and continued to stare down Thorn.

Thorn gave a distasteful sniff, simply sticking out his hand and flicking his hand, gesturing 'come at me', smiling as if he was talking to a cupcake he planned to devour instead of an actual opponent.

"Timburr, use Leer!" Timburr's eyes flashed a dangerous red, melting into Thorn menacingly.

Thorn hardly blinked at the attack, twirling away on his toes as the cast off from Timburr's eyes went sailing by, completely missing him.

"Thorn, use Vine Whip!" the vines struck out fast and true, bombarding Timburr on every side, smacking him around like a rag doll. Thorn continued to strike, each vine targeted separately and striking true to their mark, sending Timburr flying backwards, skidding along the ground.

N gritted his teeth, trying to muster the effort to save his Pokémon "Timburr use Bi-"

Thorn was in Tumburr's face before N could even finish commanding the move. "Hit 'em hard with Vine Whip, rapid fire!" Thorn's thin green vines struck out again, Timburr becoming nothing but a ball covered in green-colored fury; in a matter of seconds, Thorn had reduced him to his knees; Timburr flopped back helplessly, unable to battle.

Thorn swayed his butt back to my side, flicking his tail smugly all the way, turning and giving N a wink mockingly over his shoulder.

I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly, slightly embarrassed. _Of course Thorn would do something like that just to scare N… _I mused. _If he was even remotely afraid of my royally fucking things up, he sure wasn't showing it. _

Indeed, N was taken aback by Thorn, but shook it off with an easy laugh. It was not the jovial, awkward laugh he had laughed the day I met him in Accumula town, but one that was more restrained, more practiced. "Well, this is certainly not turning in my favor…perhaps you are more tuned into the future I envisioned after all… your strength and team work is remarkable… however…" his eyes flashed dangerously "Do not under estimate my own truth. Your simple ideals are nothing compared to true feelings. Tympole, it's your turn!"

A floppy little bouncy Pokémon shot from the ball, waving blue tail slashing through the air like it was swimming through it. It bounced up and down on its sides like a ball, looking just like a hyper-active toy; Thorn watched it bounce, moving his head up and down, transfixed.

"Tympole, Supersonic!"

Tympole broke its happy bouncing, opening its wide mouth, and emitting a screechingly loud, force-blast of sound waves aimed at Thorn. His red eyes flew open as the barrage of ringed sound waves ripped over his ears, causing him to double over in pain. All surrounding windows began shattering, the thin, tinkly glass shards falling haphazardly to the pavement, make the entire area a mine field of glass.

The Supersonic was so shrill, car alarms started going off in the distance, adding more noise to the eardrum-bursting level of noise the battle was causing. My own ears started to burn with the noise, Supersonic's screech making me feel a touch woozy; stars began to float lazily in front of my eyes, flashing black and purple, taking their time to clear my vision. My knees began to quiver underneath me, aching to fall over, but my determination kept them firmly in place.

Across the field, N seemed completely unaffected by the noise, standing with his hands in his pockets, watching Thorn squirm. "You see, Tympoles emit extremely high decibel calls by using their cheeks, which is how they communicate. These sound waves can also be channeled into a powerful Supersonic attack, rendering all Pokémon within range completely stupefied. However…" N lifted a hand to point at one of his ears hidden beneath his wild green hair "The pitch of the sound waves they emit is so high that humans cannot hear it at all, and therefore are not affected by the move what-so-ever… its strange how different humans and Pokémon are…" N began musing quietly to himself, seeming to have lost touch with the real world, disappearing into his mind.

_Uhhh, it hurts… _I screeched on the inside, the sheer loudness of the Supersonic causing my brain to turn itself inside out, refusing to think. I finally fell to the ground, tucking my head between my knees, covering my ears with my thighs; anything, anything to muffle that ungodly sound. "THORN, MAKE IT STOOOOPPPP!"

_"SSSSSSSSSSSNNNNNNNNNNNNIIIII IIIII!"_

There was the sound of sheer fury, accompanied by the harsh-sounding _cracks! _of a whip over soft skin, and the noise was stopped. Tears in my eyes, I peered up from my legs to see Thorn had bitch-slapped Tympole across the face, sending it flying into a nearby fountain; Thorn was breathing hard, trying to stand, but shifting woozily every time he thought he had found his footing.

N snapped back from his own little world, tuning back into the conversation "Tympole… AH! Supersonic worked, Thorn has become confused…" N observed, scanning the battle field over with cloudy green eyes, his mind still seemingly half-way checked-out by the way he was commentating. He blinked rapidly once his eyes had settled on me hunched over on the ground, hands still over my ears.

I opened my eyes wide in surprise, gritting my teeth as Thorn wondered in circles drunkenly. I hadn't known Supersonic induced confusion, but that would explain why Thorn's been reduced to acting like a spaz. I gritted my teeth together harder, unsure of what to do.

"Why do you not switch out your Pokémon? Are you ready to admit defeat?" N questioned, eyes burning into me, daring me to give in, daring me to prove him right, that I was just a selfish trainer who followed her ideals, only thinking for herself and what she wanted. _Daring _me to willingly give up Thorn.

_Well I would be selfish if I didn't let Thorn finish you off first, _I smiled through my fears. I took a step forward, raising my fist. "Are you kidding? You've asked me that both times we've battled, and the answer is still no. I'm having a blast! Of course I'm not going to give in, we're giving it all we got!" I was having too much fun right now to worry about such trivial things as simply giving up right now. We had a battle to win. I had a mind to set straight.

_"Commere Nnn, I've got a present fer you and yo-or bounceyyy ball-yyy… I'ma gonna doooo somtin I nevr have beforw... you'knww, YOLO." _Thorn giggled menacingly, slurring his words in time with his wobbly movements, but looking determined all the same, slightly glassy red eyes bouncing all over the place.

N smiled, smiling the exact same smile he had the first day I'd met him, lopsided and rusty, but still happiness shined from within. "Well then we're not holding back either! Tympole, Hydro Pump!"

"Whaaaaaa?" Thorn and I yelped in unison.

_"TYMPOLE!" _Tympole launched itself up from the fountain, moving even quicker now that it had been doused in water, rearing back its head and spitting out a harsh blast of pressurized water.

_"…!" _Thorn was blasted full force by the harsh water, flying backwards as the rushing water continued to flow, the sheer pressure of it starting to rub his scales raw. In his confusion, he had tried to block it, only succeeding in hiding his face behind his tail before being sent tumbling backwards by another tumult of water.

_"POLE!" _Tympole chirped, dropping from the sky back into the fountain, landing with a small splash.

"Thorn?!" I gasped, looking right and left for my missing partner.

_"Uh… I'm wet…" _Thorn said simply from a few feet away, and I turned and spied him sitting completely waterlogged, leaning against the cork board, all the papers and fliers behind him soaking wet now, their lines of text and advertisements completely unreadable. Thorn pushed himself to a standing, shaking himself off in a flurry of leaves and scales; his red eyes were clear, the forceful blast of water having brought him back to his senses.

Slowly he clenched and unclenched his fists, cocking his head back and forth with releasing cracks to loosen him up, tail flicking agitatedly. With a final crack, he turned and drilled his eyes into N, putting a finger on his lips like he was contemplating something. _"Oh yeah, that's where I was…" _his red eyes flickered with mischief.

He launched himself into the air, spinning around rapidly like he was using Gyro Ball, but his tail was still flicking like crazy instead of tucked in; to my shock, leaves actually began to whirl around with Thorn inside the vortex, creating a wild spinning storm of sharp-edged leaves with Thorn in the middle. The leaves were glinting sharply in the sun, dazzling as diamonds; the verdant green, gem-like storm of leaves was strangely beautiful, its beauty dazzling me.

Thorn stopped for a moment, all the leaves seeming to hover in place; the vortex he had created had frozen _"You die now, fish face."_

The whirlwind of leaves flew, striking out and an astonishing speed, ripping through the air like arrows towards their target: Tympole. The sheared into it, cutting through the water like it was paper, raking over Tympole in a flurry of vibrant green pain.

_"TYYYYYYMMMM!"_

There was an explosion, and Tympole was launched from the water, all the energy from the attack having created a combusted reaction, scattering the remains of the singed leaves. Tympole plummeted to the ground, bouncing once before landing flat on its face, fainted. Thorn swayed up to it, giving it a sharp kick in the side to see if it was alive.

_"Completely fainted, and in shock at the same time, man I am good."_

"Thorn!" I ran forward, wrapping my grass snake in my arms, giving him a tight squeeze like he was a squeaky toy; only after a moment of shock, did he actually hug back. I swung him around in the air "WHAT WAS THAT?!" I marveled.

Thorn gave me a shrug _"You tell me, I have no clue wtf I just did!" _

"That was Leaf Tornado…" N's voice came from the other side of the field. We both turned our heads in his direction, seeing him return his fainted Tympole, a sort of melancholy look on his face.

"N?"

He sighed. "Right now my friends are not strong enough to save all Pokémon… maybe that just means I can't yet solve the equation that will change the world, as your own power had engulfed me. You…" he took a deep breath, the words almost seeming to pain him "… and your Pokémon work so wonderfully together, regardless of the task ahead. You stared me down in the face in a setback, and you continued to fight for what you wanted. You are a trainer that follows her ideals…. But…" his eyes finally met mine, a sad, defeated smile on his face "… that does not mean you are not a wonderful trainer who has great faith in her friends… and won't ever bend to anything anyone has to say to her."

N walked forward, not making a single sound, and stood before me, his tall, lanky frame standing tall above my own; he swept down for a bow, leaning over so inhumanly far I thought he might topple over. "As I said, you have battled me and won, so I will take my leave now… may your journey make both you and your Pokémon happy." and with that he leaned back up with flawless balance and commenced to walking away, arms swinging freely at his sides.

_Wait…. _the inside of my brain said quietly after him; I now realized why his words were sounding like a good-bye. He really was saying good-bye, and for some reason, I didn't want him to walk off into the sunset, never to be seen again.

"WAIT!" I yelled out loud this time, dashing forward and grabbing his arm by the sleeve, causing him to jerk around.

"Now that you've gotten a chance to say all the stuff you wanted to, its time I got a chance. I want to say, I'm not the one who deserves your praise, its Thorn. He is the one who makes it all possible, and I have no really power compared to him. Also, I'm sorry for blowing up on you in the café and being rude, and just being all around awful. Everyone has different views and strengths and tolerance levels…" I quickly cast my eyes at Thorn who was still in my arms.

"But there's no way you're just going to walk out on me now; don't you have any spine? Any courage?!" I spat at him, my anger more directed to the situation than at him, though I'm not sure he took it that way.

"If you _really_ want to change the world, then you have to man up a fight: be more aggressive, ask those questions no one else does, fix the things you see in front of you right now and stop walking away—just like today! Do that every time! I know I'm not perfect, but I want to change too!" I shouted.

"So please be my friend. I can forgive you if you say you will."

Once the words were out of my mouth, I began to blush; _why was this sounding so much cheesier than I was meaning it to? _I thought for a moment, the slight blush flaming to a full on red glow.

N's face contorted, a flash of several emotion running across in just a few moments: surprise, suspicion, doubt, guilt, and…. Relief? N broke out in a small smile, the corners of his mouth edging to grow wider, but N held them in check, however this did not keep a happy flush from rising up on his cheeks as well. "Well… I… eh-hem" he cleared his throat "It makes me happy, M-mina, that you consider me a friend. I do find time spent with you rather amusing and… enjoyable. You do not all around revolt me like many other trainers do."

I smiled back, letting the back-handed complement slip by. "So we'll see each other again soon? I can't wait to beat you again!"

N chuckled "We shall see…" before turning and resuming his walk away from me, but this time, with more of lightness to his step.

I watched him go when a tinkling of a thought brushed through my mind; I realized he had not used Zorua in the battle.

**OOOOOOOOO**

As N walked away, he felt his heart be a touch lighter than it had been before. _'… please be my friend…' _the words bounced around in his mind, making him happy to continue hearing them over and over again.

_My first human friend…._

N had originally came here per Ghetesis's orders to find out more about Mina, simply doing his duty to his subjects at first; somewhere along the way he had gotten caught up in it all, and was now walking away much more enlightened and with a new friend waiting to see him again. His mind was clear, his choices having left him free of any lingering guilt.

But... something was pulling at him. The dread that things were not as shiny as they seemed, that something was lurking below the surface, telling him not to grow too comfortable. N thought of the plans that had been meticulously laid out for him, plans that had been made specifically so he could accomplish his goal: Pokemon liberation. _Friends... wasted emotions... _Ghetesis's words hit the back of his skull, verberating against his thoughts. _Friends... could be useful if they could be convinced..._ N's mid thought absently. The thought didn't stick to his mind though, the untruthfulness of it all disrupting the flow of thoughts in his head. If he was anything, he was truthful. For now, he would keep his emotions in check, focusing on the road ahead instead of one insignificant... girl... that was his first friend... N felt sour, feeling like he was arguing with himself again.

_I just hope you do not get caught up in the chaos that is about to ensue… Reshiram, I'm coming for you… and nothing, not even my emotions, will stand in the way._

* * *

**Hello again people of fanfiction. Its pokegirl... but i'm not... alone...**

**Ghetesis-"Why in the name of Caveilia, Zekrom, and Reshiram combined am I here in this blasted box?"**

**Uh... cuz... you were the only one I could swindle into... you know... being here?**

**Ghetesis-"If I do not own it, I want no part of it. Let me begone!**

**Err bring me someone else and then your free to go... soooooooooooo... I really like telling parts of the story in N's point of view. Its so different from Mina's and Thorn's... :)... also heres something I have neglected to state from day one I DO NOT OWN POKEMON OR REALLY ANY OF THE CHARACTERS IN THE STORY*cough* King of Ranting*cough* however, I do sorta own Mina (character, not design) Thorn (again, character not design) and Mike (He's all mine). So, there.**

**Oh, and since we got a hint of Thorn's past last chapter, I wanted to know if you were interested in hearing more? Check out my poll, and gimme a vote!**

**Keep reading and reviewing! and even if you don't read, or even like it, still review, telling me what I need to do better XD**

**See ya peeps later!**


	18. Chapter 17: READ THE DAMN MEMO

Chapter 17: READ THE DAMN MEMO

I put my head on my knees, scrunching my body up into a sitting fetal position, looking up into the sky from between my arms. The moon was lovely tonight, a smiling sliver of a glowing crescent in the midnight sky, its glowing milky-white rays coating the world outside. I was sitting in the Pokémon center lobby, and all was quiet; even the slightest move produced an echo, seeming to shake the whole lobby in the emptiness. The Nurse Joy on duty had gone to bed, leaving me to my thoughts.

I was sitting next to the biggest window in the lobby, which was a large floor-to-ceiling rectangular window with spotlessly clean glass. I looked up at the moon, the events of the past few days running on rapid replay through my disheveled head.

_"Mina? What's the matter?"_

I was startled by the voice, freeing me from my thoughts, and causing me to turn around. Behind me stood Eevee, his deep brown eyes sparkly and clear, looking alive and bouncy even though it was a quarter past midnight. He had wandered up to the bench I was sitting on, sitting down behind me and looking up questioningly at me, like he had expected no else but him to up on this beautiful evening. He pawed at my hand.

I patted the cushion next to me, and he hopped up onto its deep blue vinyl, circling a few times before finally settling down, wrapping his tail around himself. I turned my gaze back to the moon above, which was standing out like a lightning bug in the middle of the cloudless sky; Eevee's tail thumbed against my back.

_"Mina, what are you thinking about?"_

I took a deep breath, still eyeing the moon. I really didn't wanna get him involved with the f***ed up mess that was my mind right now; the thought of simply lying to him brushed past my mind.

"Uh, you know, I just had some awesome battle strategies I wanted to see if I could work out, so I came down here to, you know, think about them…" I waved my hand at Eevee "It's really nothing. You can go back to bed"

Eevee shook his head _"You're lying. What's really the matter?"_

I tried to laugh it off "Of course, I'm not lying. Nothings the ma-"

_"Mina, be truthful to me. You owe me that much"_

"Really, it's nothing"

Eevee's face had begun to scowl, one eyebrow raised and the other one lowered, looking at me questioningly.

I sighed; he was right; I did owe him that much after the events of the past few days "Fine, I lied…." I stuck my head back on my knees, sinking lower into my slump "and I was thinking about what N was saying…"

Eevee cocked his head to the side, looking confused. _"What do you mean by that?"_

I blew a few messy pieces of hair from my face "I really have put you all through a lot the past few days…. and I… I'm" the raging guilt inside me was starting to drag me under, refusing to let my words free; I tried again "I am selfish. I really am. N hit the nail on the head on that one. I haven't done a single thing since I started my journey that was didn't get someone angry of hurt. My conviction… is nothing compared to his…." I let out a dead laugh.

Eevee was quiet for a moment _"Well yeah, that's because he is N, and you are you." _he smiled _"You're both different trainers, so of course you both will be different…."_

I shrugged, still not convinced. "I guess…. But you can't say I'm not selfish or rude or anything like that…."

Eevee looked down at his paws, rubbing them against each other in a slow circular motion _"From what I've seen, that is true. You are sometimes brash, and rude. You'll lie about your feelings, and you use us as your outlet for pain… but…." _A small smile came on his lips _"You are you, and no one should ever tell you to change. Thorn and I follow you because you are just the way you are, not because you're right or wrong, or because follow your ideals instead of the truths people have laid out for you…. You do what you want because you're unhappy where you are. You are willing to put other things aside to move forward, and that is something many people's hearts cannot let them do. That is what makes you different, and special." _Eevee finally looked up, smiling a great big smile that dwarfed his face, his little fangs overhanging his lips.

I stood aback, surprised at Eevee's testimony. He had only known me a few days, and could perfectly identify me just as simple as that? "How do you know all of that?"

_"Thorn…. He told me about you and your mom… and Professor Juniper… he pays attention a lot more than you think he does…." _Eevee shrugged. _"Thorn can identify more with you on that than I can, but at least I know more about you. It actually makes me like you even more" _Eevee smiled again, looking completely honest and true in his words, the complete opposite of how I had lied and tried to deceive him.

My eyes were starting to water, a few pesky tears wanting to leak over my eyelashes and run down my face. "Ho-o-ow co-ould you… y-you trust m-e-e to much-ch al-lready?" I staggered, the lump forming in my throat betraying my efforts to stay composed.

Eevee just looked at me, still smiling _"Because I know despite your flaws, you will always take care of me. I can see it in you; you are a good person at heart. That is why I trust you, because you may follow your dreams instead of following others' dreams. You are your own."_

There was nothing I could do to keep from lurching forward and flinging my arms around my Eevee, pulling him close as those stubborn tears finally tore their way through my eyes. I held him tight, and he just relaxed against my chest, letting me hug him. More tears began to well up and run down my cheeks, embarrassing me even though I made no effort to stop them; I almost never cried, the events of the past having taught me better of it, as putting on a brave face was always the better way handle anything. This time I allowed myself the exception of letting my tears flow, all because of this little creature's kind words.

Man, I am becoming such a wuss.

**OOOOOOOOO**

**"**Well, let's try this again!" I stretched, gazing up at the mighty entrance to the Nacrene city museum. I pulled my arm behind my head, stretching out the muscles and feeling giddiness welling up within me. I looked down at my pair of Pokémon underneath me, seeing if they were as pumped as I was.

"Thorn… why are you poking Eevee?"

Thorn looked up from jabbing a finger into Eevee's side. _"He's really fluffy. Like, unnaturally fluffy. I have to touch it, it's so fluffy." _He went back to poking Eevee's tail wagging tail, moving his finger to keep up with its constant motion.

"Eevee…?"

Eevee shrugged _"It doesn't bother me." _He smiled.

_"So… unbearably… fluffy…."_

I rolled my eyes "Come on, let's go you queers, before people start doing weird stuff like shipping you two" I nudged Eevee on with my foot, Thorn being magnetically pulled behind by the magical fluffiness of Eevee's tail. I pushed open the door and we wandered inside.

The long ocean-blue carpet that trailed its way around the room was ruffled up as the door swung close, and the chatter in the museum took the place of the sounds from outside. A trio of blue and pink wearing suited men tipped their bowlers hats as we walked in, welcoming us with a chorus of 'good day'. The entire museum was crowded by people, artists and school kids gawking at the preserved pieces of history displayed on square pedestals throughout the room. I did a full 360, looking at the room in its entirety; my eyes stopped when they landed on the intricate skeleton displayed in the center of the room, its gargantuan size causing the pointed tip of it's head to brush the ceiling.

"Oh, wow!" I darted from the entrance, shoving aside a few kids and rushing up to the amazing skeleton, the full effect of its size settling upon me. Its wings were spread out at least five feet from its body, forming canopies over all those viewing below. The ribcage on that thing looked big enough to put one of those industrial-sized refrigerators in it, and probably would still have enough space to put a 62' flat screen TV. Its feet were planted right in front of me, looking as big as a basketball player's shoes, only they weren't shoes; a proud little gold sign was position directly next to the foot, 'DO NOT TOUCH' written out in big bold letters. You know that feeling of wanting to touch stuff that shouldn't be touched? Yeah, I have it right now.

_"Ooh…. I want to touch that thing now…." _Thorn had wandered up to me, scaling by body and perching himself up on my head, eyeing the foot right in front of us. He began to reach out, red eyes flickering with excitement.

A man next to us sighed "Whenever I looked at this skeleton… I'm fascinated…. And it seems I'm not the only one"

I turned in the direct of his voice, pulling Thorn from almost touching the foot; Thorn's arm grew limp as it batted air instead of prehistoric bone; he smacked the back of my head with his tail in discontempt.

The man shuffled, fixing his brown horn-rimmed glasses upon his nose before continuing "Oh, forgive me for not introducing myself, my name is Hawes, and I'm assistant director of this museum. I really do get excited looking at all the amazing artifacts Lenora and I have gathered over the years, and it's wonderful to see the young people enjoying it as well."

On the ground, Eevee grinned _"Enjoying it a little too much…" _he snickered, obviously having picked up on Thorn and I's desire to touch stuff that shouldn't be touched. I grinned sheepishly at his observation.

Hawes gave me a weird look "Miss, are you quite alright?"

"Huh? Oh!" I straightened back up, looking again at Hawes instead of Eevee "Its nothing, my Eevee just said something, and it made me grin. Don't worry, I'm completely sane." I put my hands behind my back, rocking on my heels. On my hat, Thorn snickered.

Hawes smiled, looking a bit puzzled. "You can understand them? How fascinating… oh" he cleared his throat, turning back to the conversation beforehand "Since you were kind enough to visit, shall I give you a tour?"

I nodded, the strange skeleton having taken my mind solely off of battling. I felt Thorn hit the back of my head again with his tail, groaning from all the movement. On the floor, Eevee snickered.

Hawes turned back to the skeleton in front of us, ruffling his short brown hair "This is the skeleton of a dragon-type Pokémon. The theory behind its appearance is it must have had an accident while it was flying around the world, struck by lightning or getting stuck in a snow storm. Since it was obvious this creature used to fly, both methods would have been detrimental to it, and are the closest we have to explanations on how it died."

I gawked at its might, imagining the pure might this huge being must have had when it lived. I heard a little cough, and turned and saw Hawes had started off in another direction.

"This way…"

I followed behind him to another exhibit. It was another platform, placed lower to the ground than the dragon skeleton had been, and displayed a rather strange looking rock, bits of green and purple glowing inside its divots. Thorn let out a huff when he saw the 'No Touching' sign.

Hawes gestured to the rock "This is a rather peculiar artifact. It is a meteor fallen from outer space, and it had some kind of strange space virus attached it. It cannot be transfer to people or Pokémon through any means of contact we've observed though. Still, we keep the sign up for precautionary measures." To emphasize his point, the rock began to glow lightly, giving my skin a slight green tinge; I suddenly wanted to get far, far away from the creepy thing.

"Onward, there is much more to see…" Hawes shooed my along, eager to get away from the strange meteor as well. He began to shepherd me across the museum, pushing my right through the throngs of people that were clustered in the center of the museum. I had crunched over quite a few sets of toes, and got several withering looks from Thorn, who was perched on my head again, when I noticed we had walked directly past an exhibit; it was a small one, even smaller than the meteor's, and held a small, dark object on its platform. I stopped walking, and pointed towards the exhibit, looking back at Hawes.

"What about that one?"

"Hmmm… oh!" Hawes seemed surprised that I was interested in much an insignificant-looking item, concerning it was not as eye-catching as some of the other exhibits. Still, Hawes nodded, and began to lead us back out of the cluster of doom and towards the exhibit. It had obviously not attracted a lot of attention, as it was not even roped off from the public; however, the evil 'No Touching' sign was still present, propped up mockingly at a child's perfect height.

I leaned down to see the rounded object better. Thorn leaned forward, tipping the brim of my hat into my eyes; I flicked the brim up, growling at Thorn, and peered closer, eyeing my reflection in the sheen of the black sphere. It looked like it was made of some heavy rock or stone, something like basalt, but its color was all wrong. Also, it looked to smooth to be made out of rock, the surface slick and shiny instead of being rough and dull that items made from rock often are; the urge to touch things was back again.

"You see, it's really nothing out of the ordinary, just a black-colored stone really, that's why we keep it back here out of the way of the more populous foot traffic. It was dug up along with several other artifacts at the Desert Resort on Route 4, but it seems to have little worth. We simply keep it on display because it's rather pretty to look at…"

"Mm-hmm…" I agreed, marveling at the slick beauty of the stone. I seemed to me like anything other than ordinary, the deep dark color to it, its gleaming surface, the mystical aura around it. What puzzled me was something as lovely as this had been dwelling in the desert. It was amazing it had not been discovered earlier; the dark color would have stood out strikingly in the golden sand. _I wonder how deep it was buried….._

"Well, there is much more here to look at than that dusty old thing. We have other artifacts from the Desert Resort, as well as a few rare prehistoric Pokémon bones, and some early civilization tools and instruments from over ten thousand years ago, featuring a few implements made from the extinct Darkwoo-"

"Hawes…." I started, eyes still glued to the stone. It was starting to… crackle… almost. The aura around it had started to heighten, giving off a light glow. Disobeying the sign, I reached forward, running my finger along its surface lightly. It felt smooth and round and… _alive. _It almost seemed to breathe beneath my fingers, the core of the sphere seeming to radiate heat like a live being, rather than a stone. I placed my entire hand on it, rubbing my palm on its surface, imagining it inhaling underneath my fingers.

"Ah, Oh!" Hawes caught sight of me, startling me into jerking my hand off the stone like it was on fire. The stone shut down almost instantaneously, like a switch had been flipped, and the glow faded back into the darkness of the stone again. Hawes walked over, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "You're obviously a Pokémon trainer, here to challenge my wife, and here I am dragging you around the museum. I'm quite sorry I've kept you like this" He laughed.

I shuttered, still remembering the feel of the stone breathing underneath my fingers. I was silently relieved he had not seen me disobeying the sacred sign, wiping my sweaty palms against my shorts, nodding at what Hawes was saying.

Hawes stepped aside, gesturing with a sweeping movement of his hand to a flight of stair leading up to an old-timey looking double door. "Up there is the reference library and the museum archives. My wife's office is up there as well, and you can challenge her as soon as you can find it…" he took a look at my puzzled face, seeing the big question mark written across my forehead about the identity misconception. Hawes backtracked a little bit "Oh, forgive me; Lenora is my wife as well as the gym leader. She's very tough, but is as gentle as she is strong. I wish you the best of luck against her… as she is not an easy one to beat."

I grinned, despite still being shaken by the strange happening with the stone. "I got this locked and loaded, Hawes. I got skill. There's no need for luck." I hiked my feet up, launching myself up the stairs, on my way to find Lenora's office.

**OOOOOOOOO**

I burst through the double wooden doors, letting them fly open and slam into the walls behind them, the grating _CLACK _of wood on wood echoing in the strangely empty-sounding room. I was met in return with a group hiss of 'SSSHHHH_' _from all those present in the room, flinching back at their hostility.

I was surprised to see not an office or a battle field, but a _library_, filled with just as many people as they museum down stairs. The hissing groups near the door had gotten up from their perches, scooping up their perspective reference books and pens and papers as the moved towards the quieter center of the library, giving me irritated looks over their shoulder.

I smiled sheepishly, ruffling my ponytail "Hehe, sorry everyo-"

"SSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHH" a wave of hissing flew back at me.

"Mmm, tough bunch…" I grumbled, receiving even more stink eyes from another herd of patrons moving away from me, plopping down in cushy beanbag chairs and over-stuffed recliners a few feet away.

_"You need lessons on manners" _Thorn smirked amused.

"You need lessons on how to better avoid being thrown out windows"

_"Correction, you need lessons on people skills"_

"And you will be joining me for said lessons, grass snake"

_"Please stop you two, we have a gym battle to look forward to. Please don't fight when we're so close to reaching our goal." _ Eevee said coolly, trying to defuse the tension between us. He placed a paw on my leg, giving the big Lillipup-eyes.

I pulled Thorn off my head, dropping him to the ground with Eevee; he curled himself up, crossing him arms and pouting. Eevee smiled good-naturedly, patting him on the back with a gentle paw. He gave me a hopeful smile.

I sighed; leave it to the most level-headed of the bunch to constantly have to diffuse situations of emotional unrest. I stooped down to rubbed his ears, looking around the room for a door way or plaque that ordained and area Lenora's office; I didn't see anything.

"Er, where do we start?"

"Perhaps I could be of assistance to you?"

"Huh?"

I was surprised what I saw when I looked up: A large hulking man stood in front of me, wearing an immaculate white suit…. And sunglasses…. And had a neck the size of a tree trunk and had a slight country accent. I reared back in horror "YOU!"

"YOU!" the man gasped, realizing who I was, eyes flashing with bright anger in remembrance of the last time we met; lollygagging in his stolen classroom to be exact.

"What are YOU doing HERE?!" I yelped, taking a few steps back, a bit afraid the man might pounce.

"I happen to work here, short stuff! I work for all the gyms in the region!" the angry cosmetology club teacher growled at me, looming over me at his full ungodly height. He whipped off his sunglasses, melting me down with flaming eyes.

Thorn underneath me let out a single strangled syllable _"Meep"_

"Wait you work here?" I asked, straightening back up, hoping the fact that his man was one the job would keep him from pummeling me to pale-skinned pieces right here in the middle of the library.

"YES I WORK HERE AND WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?!"

"Well, can you tell me how to get to Lenora's office, Mr. Anger Point?" I rubbed my chin, looking the man over. Professor Juniper had shown me a special Sandile once that had Anger Point as it's special ability. I'm not sure what it does, but it certainly seems to suit this irate man.

"MY NAME'S CLYDE YOU DISRESPECTFUL RUNT, and yes, I can point you to Lenora's office." Clyde crossed his arms across his masculine chest, looking down crossly at me before continuing "The gym leader waits for a challenger at the back of the museum, but its hidden. You'll have to use all your Pokémon knowledge to get to her."

"Huh? You mean I have to guess my way through it all?"

Clyde huffed, seeming disappointed I would propose such a stupid thing "If ya know anythin' about Pokémon, you ought to do just fine. If ya don't, well you're gonna be in for a hard time." He reached down into one of his gargantuan pockets, producing a strangely icy-despite-being-in-his-pants bottle of water. He shoved it at me "Take it and get to it, midget, another guy came in earlier and looked pretty determined to get to Lenora. I would hull some tail if I wuz you, if ya wanna beat 'em to 'er"

"Don't have to tell me twice!" I pushed past the hulking man darting in-between the front two bookshelves, looking for a switch or a lever that could activate some hidden panel in this mysteriously empty-seeming room to reveal the gym leader. I tossed a row of books to the floor after seeing a looming object behind the row, but pouted when I saw it was only a forgotten, half-crushed water bottle.

"Cool it, booty shorts, I never explained the gym itself to ya. Impatient runts… destroying property." Clyde called out from back towards the entrance, arms still crossed across his chest, silvery eyebrows lifting up into his albino-tinted hair, a v-shaped frown on his face.

I turned around to look at him again, scowling. _Damn that country lingo is starting to really annoy me._

"First thin' you gotta know 'bout the gym, you gotta find the correct books on the shelves that talk about a specific subject. You'll find memos in those select books 'bout where the next on'll be. You'll find Lenora after you've solved all the riddles. Plain and simple."

_Plain and… simple….? _I gawked at the thousands of books decorating the shelves around me. _I.. have to go through… ALL of them…? _Oh my Archeus, I was going to die here; I was frickin' gonna die here looking for a few select books in a library/museum thing that was as big as three of my houses.

Clyde got some amusement from my shocked face, but quickly remedied the situation "Cause I'm a nice guy, I'll tell you where the first book its, and the rest'll be up to you. There," he pointed off at one of the shorter shelves in the front of the library, which was painted a cheery yellow and was surrounded by beanbag chairs and worn stuffed animals. "The first book is called 'Nice to Meet You, Pokémon' and it's on that shelf. Get to it, booty shorts, times a wastin'"

I dashed pas the hulking man, flopping down to my knees, and began tearing through the happy yellow bookshelf. Thorn and Eevee appeared at my sides, ripping through the books along with me, double checking the books that landed on the ground before diving back into the shelf.

_"I got it!" _Eevee cried triumphantly, holding up the worn picture book in his jaws, smiling toothily around the spine of the book.

I took it gently from his mouth, whipping off the Eevee saliva onto the rug, and flipping open the book. I scanned through the pages, keeping and eye out for a sticky note or a scrap of paper that might be the next clue; the book was mostly just pictures of a anime-style little blond-haired boy and his adventures with a small brown Pokémon that looked strikingly similar to Eevee.

"Hey Eevee… is this what you evolve into?" I inquired, coming across a page where the little brown Pokémon was touching a blue colored stone, and had changed form into a blue creature with ivory colored fins sticking out from its head with a long graceful, fish-like tail what was riddled with sky-blue scales. Eevee pawed at the pages uncertainly.

_"I'm n-not sure… oh?" _Eevee batted at the pages, and a little beige sticky note fluttered to the ground from the inside of the book. I swiped it up, reading it out loud.

"'Pokémon trainers! I am the gym leader, Lenora! I hid four memos in this library. Each of them has a question for you to answer in order to move on with your challenge. Can you solve the questions and come find me? Now this is the first question: What was the first Pokémon you met at the gym? Find the book you're looking for in the sixth row!''

_What? I haven't met any Pokémon at this gym yet, save for that dragon guy, but I don't think he counts…; _I was shot from my thoughts as a shadow came to loom over me again. I turned, expecting Clyde to have came back to torment me, but instead found and entirely different thing: a school kid.

"I hang around the gym all the time… they call me the book worm. I am strong 'cause I-"

I grabbed the nasally-sounding kid by the sweater vest, leaning in close to his face "Tell me, what Pokémon do you have?!"

"Huh, I have a Patrat but-"

"Kids! Spread out and search for anything on Patrats!" I flung my head back, yelling for my Pokémon. Thorn launched himself up onto the top of the book shelves, running along the tops and jumping in the gaps between them, heading for the sixth row. Eevee sprinted for the bottom rows, tearing them apart as he flew by.

I dropped the protesting kid, darting for a book shelf of my own, digging through the books, eager to find the next note. I tossed a leather-bound dictionary over my shoulder, hearing it flop defeated to the ground in front of the dejected school kid.

"He-e-e-ey! You're supposed to ba-"

_"Buried treasure, ahoy!" _Thorn's voice called out from a few rows over, earning him several sharp hisses of 'silence' of his own. He peered around the corner of a beaten maple wood book shelf, waving around a beige colored hard-back book. _"Com 'er, you scurvy dogs, 'fore I has to make ye walk the books-"_

"Save it for Poke-Wood, dork! Find the memo!" I ran over to Thorn, grabbing the book, titled 'Biology of a Patrat' from his fingers and flipping rapidly through the pages, eager to find the next note.

I flipped to a page and Thorn plucked a single sheet of green-lined notebook paper. He held it up, reading it out loud _"'As I thought, that question was easy' ha, it was easy and I showed you all up mem-"_

"Read the memo!"

Thorn sniffed _"Fine, fine. Pushy. Ok…'Now for the second question…' I bet this will be a cake walk too. They mine as well just give my the gym badge now, I'm so on top of all th-"_

"READ THE DAMN MEMO!"

Eevee swiped the note from Thorn's hand, clearing his throat before continuing _"' Now into the second question: Flame burns inside its body, and it gives off smoke from its head while it runs…'. Flame inside it's body…. What could that be?"_

I took the note from Eevee "I don't know, maybe a fire-type of some sort? Like a Pansear or something?" I furrowed my brow, gears turning in my head trying to figure out the riddle.

_"TO THE FIRE-TYPE SECTION!" _Thorn yelped, pointing a finger in the air. He dashed off across the aisle, heading for a section titled as 'Pokémon'. He leaped over a school girl sitting on a stool, landing on his toes about ready to run off again, before he caught sight of what she was reading. He scaled the stool in a flash, lifting the book from her fingers, and dashing back over to me. He laid the book in my hands.

"'Biology of a Tepig'. Does this look like the right thing to you?" I asked, flipping open the book, rifling through pages depicting the bone and muscle structure of variously-aged Tepigs. I ripped through the pages, hunting for a memo, but coming up empty.

"It doesn't say anything about ' fire inside' or 'smoke from its head'. Did you see any other fire-type biology books?" I asked Thorn, running my fingers through the pages again. Thorn just shrugged.

_"If it's not a Pokémon… then what about a machine?" _Eevee inquired from behind a bookshelf. Thorn and I peered around the bookshelf, seeing Eevee sitting in front of a lovely blue-haired scientist who was flipping through a book about locomotives. She caught a glance of the Pokémon sitting in front of her, letting out a cute squeal once she got a good look at him.

"Why, what are you doing here all alone in a library-" she began reaching down to stroke his head.

"Hey! I think you might have the book I'm looking for! Can you help us?" I asked, sweeping around the corner of the bookshelf, coming to stand next to Eevee.

The scientist jumped a bit at my sudden appearance, but quickly reverted back to her normal self, holding up her book, looking questioningly at me "Oh, did you get a memo? Does that mean this adorable creature belongs to you?"

I nodded "Yeah, I got a memo, and Eevee lead us here. Can we see the book?"

"Hmm, what does the memo say…?" The scientist took the memo from my fingers, adjusting her royal-blue glasses upon her nose, tapping her loafered toe on the carpeted floor as she read the note. "Hmm, oh, I see! Flame burns inside its body, and its head gives off smoke! That sounds exactly like a locomotive! Here, this book is titled 'Structure of a Locomotive'. Does this sound correct?"

I grabbed the book flipping through the pages until I came across the coveted next memo, a piece of Patrat stationary worn down around the edges with a few water marks dribbled across the front. I held it up to the light "It's impressive you found this place! That's what I'd expect from a trainer like you! Now for the third question: If you heat up a pot, it will be delicious. What is it? Hmm…. Food in a pot?" Took the note out, handing it down to Thorn and Eevee so they could read it as well.

The scientist shuffled a bit on her perch on top of the cushion she was sitting on. "Um, if you wouldn't mind…. It would be wonderful for my scientific research if you ba-"

_"Mina! Over here!" _Thorn called from a few shelves away, tearing through the line of books in the bottom shelf. I dashed away towards him before the scientist could finish.

"Or you could… just run away…. I'm fine with that too…." The scientist mumbled, watching me run away.

"Thorn, what did you find?" I asked, pushing aside a line of centuries-old cookbooks that looked like they would crumble if you look at them twice. A furry head popped out of a line of books on the shelf above Thorn; Eevee had a thin paperback book in his jaws, smiling at his discovery.

_"Lookit wa I fuoond!" _he smiled from around the book. Thorn yanked it from his jaws, taking a good look at the cover.

_"Poffins?! What on Archeus's green earth are poffins… and why do they look so edible?" _Thorn drooled a bit, staring at the pink and blue colored, muffin-like treats on the front cover. Bits of berries and other good-looking bits were sticking out of the tops of the poffins, shining deliciously in the light of the photo on the cover. Eevee looked over Thorn's shoulder, eyes growling wide at the treats as well; a thin line of drool dripped from his mouth to the covert of the book, making Thorn drop it like it had the space virus, giving Eevee a nasty look over his shoulder.

I picked the drool-covered book from the floor, wiping off the cover with one of my sweatbands, giving them both a sour look. I flipped open the book, looking through some of the recipes. _Honey Cacao, Mandarin Berry, Green tea and Almond…. Wow these sound good… _I flipped feverishly through the recipes, oohing and awing at each and every one. "I need to make this one… oh and those… and I can't miss those… ooooooh! THOSE!"

_"READ THE DAMN MEMO!" _Thorn shrieked in my ear, causing me to fall over in surprise. I shot Thorn a look from the floor, pulling myself up to yell at him.

"What was that for?! You were just going crazy over them a minute ago!"

Thorn shrugged, crossing his arms _"That was soooooo one minute ago. Now I want to battle already. READ THE MEMO!"_

_"Here it is!" _Eevee cried, picking up a fold of paper running along the spine. He passed it up to me; I threw the book down and unfolded the paper.

"'You didn't manage to get tricked by this one, did you? Now for the last question: From this book shelf go two backward, move one to the left, two forward, one to the right, and one backward. Now where is it? Find it yourself!' and that's it."

Eevee and Thorn furrowed their eyebrows together, mentally going over each of the instructions on the note. I looked from the note to the shelves in front of us, counting the book shelves in order according to the note. _Wait… that's… just…a.. big… _it all clicked in my head.

Thorn, Eevee, and I all seemed to reach the same conclusion at the same time; we all looked at each other, then moved one shelf back.

Thorn scoffed _"It was just one big square… whoever wrote this lame notes are squares"_

I looked up at the bookshelf in front of us, looking around for anything that stood out against the dull encyclopedias that seemed to dominate the shelf. I inhaled a sharp breath when I saw the bright orange cover of a book, its vibrancy standing out against the muted colors of moss green and dark beige encyclopedia covers. I zeroed in on it, reaching up to grab it.

Another hand clamped on the brightly colored book as soon as I did, the hands fingers clamping around the book from the opposite side of the book shelf.. I gave the book a yank. The other person yanked it back. I pulled hard on it my way. The hand on the other side pulled back so hard I thought I might go tumbling into the book shelf, and send us all toppling over. Thorn came to my rescue, hopping up on the book shelf and giving the lanky fingers holding the book a sharp slice with his tail. The body the hand belonged to yelped out on the other side, the hand disappearing and the sound of a heavy object colliding with other heavy object was heard. I heard a sharp 'OOF!' as the hand and its owner hit the ground hard. The sudden lack of force holding me up sent me falling to the floor was well, my head smacking into the ground mere inches away from the sharp corner of the bookshelf. Rubbing my head, I looked over to see who the wanna-be book-jacker was. My eyes widened in surprise when I saw who it was.

"YOU!"

The black-blue eyes of the book-jacker widened as well "YOU!"

"Cheren?! You're the one who Clyde was talking about came in earlier?!"

Cheren propped himself up on his elbow, grumpily blowing a stray piece of his bangs away from his face "Yes, that was indeed me, and I do believe that book is MINE by that right. Hand it over please."

I hunched myself around the book, sticking out my tounge. "Finders keepers, four-eyes. Huh?" I noticed a little flip-switch on the back of the book, having a similar on/off flip like a light switch. Curiously, I flicked it, stitching it to 'ON'.

All was quiet for a moment before a great floor shaking rumble began to emanate from the book shelf. The rumbling heightened to such a might I thought it might shake the floor apart. I held onto the orange book tightly in my grasp, Thorn and Eevee flocking to my sides as the book shelf in front of my began to shift sideways, the thickly-bound enycyclopedias on the top of the book shelf shifting with the motion of the book shelf; the book shelf began to creak sideways, shifting over to reveal a hidden stairwell within the floor, the concrete stairs spiraling into the darkness below. The book shelf slowly creaked to a stop, the gap now wide enough for someone to fit down…. Or perhaps two someones if they were both really skinny.

As soon as the shelf stopped moving, both Cheren and I launched ourselves at the hole, pushing each other's faces out of the way between taking shaky steps down the stair well. I mushed Cheren's cheeks up against the side of his nose, trying to get past him.

"Lemme go!"

"No, I was here first!"

"I found the book first!"

"I was born first!"

"Stupid Chery!"

"Hey, stop pulling my…. HHHAAAAAIIIIRRRRR?!" Cheren shrieked as I gave his one flippy piece of hair on his head a sharp yank, causing him to topple over on me; I was knocked backwards, tumbling down the stairs.

Kicking and shoving, we hurtled down the stairs into the darkness below.

* * *

***Playing checkers with Mina and talking about shippings***

***plink, plink, plink* So thats... three of yours...**

**Mina-"Meh..."*plink, plink* "King me"**

**... so... did you see the trailer for Episode N the other day? *plink***

**Mina-"No. Remember you banned me from watching TV" *plink, pli-* "Damn"**

**Haha, King me! *plink, plink, plink, plink* What's your favorite fruit? **

**Mina-" I don't know, you're the author, you tell me"**

**Hmm...****why did I ban you from watching TV?**

**Mina-Laughs menially* "Because I did stuff like... THIS!"*plink, plink, plink, plink, plink, plink, plink, plinl, plink* "I win. Thats game. You lose"**

**grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr**

**Mina-"Or maybe it was because I did something like this... I AM AN ISSHUSHIPPING FAN GIRL!"**

**Meh, I can get behind that too. They are pretty cute.**

**Mina-"Er... I though that would make you mad... wanna play again?"**

**I'll be red**

**Mina-"I'll be black"**

**Maybe I'll be white then *squees***

**Mina-"I see what you did there"*points finger***


	19. Chapter 18: Idealistic Greed

Chapter 18: Idealistic Greed

"Ack!"

_Thud, thunk_

"Damn!"

_Smack_

"Sto-o"

_Thunk-a, thunk-a, thud_

_"I hate you all!"_

"My hair!"

_Thud, thunk, smash, bang_

"My face…"

_"I really hate you all!"_

_THHUUUDD_

"OOF" I squeaked out the single syllable when I finally face planted into the floor at the bottom the never-ending stair case. Moments later, a black-haired jerk, a fluffy brown Pokémon, and peeved Snivy all finished their tumbling descent down the stairs, and proceeded to all fall on top of me; all the air whooshed from my lungs when an exceptionally boney butt landed on my upper back.

A group "Uhhh" was moaned.

"What in the world…?!" A surprised voice came from across the room, followed by the scraping skid of a chair being scootched out and then pushed back into place. The fast clacks of determined heels walked our way, causing everyone in the huddle to start pushing and pulling in an effort to right ourselves before the heels reached us; I felt something small and thin writhing on my back trying to claw away; Cheren on top of me recoiled when a paw swiped for something to latch onto and caught the side his face on accident; I gave whatever was closest to my foot a sharp kick, feeling some of the weight topple off me. I peeled Eevee off my side, setting him on the ground in behind of me, looking up into the bright stadium-style lights that shined down from the ceiling. The silhouette of a bushy-haired, full-figured lady was standing above us, outlined by the lights above.

The woman standing before me was utterly massive, at least six feet tall in her maroon heels, with a tall afro of teal-blue hair piled on her head, neatly held back in a beige and red striped head scarf. Her skin was the color of dark chocolate, and she wore a long beige apron with pockets as big as her hands, a fresh-looking white blouse that was tied in a neat bow at her throat, and a pair of bell-bottom teal pants whose color matched the hue of her hair perfectly. She put a hand on her exceptionally wide hip, shifting her weight to her left side and giving us a strange look "Now what in the name of Archeus are two kids doing falling down my nice clean stair well like that? What's the problem with walking down like normal people? Now, one of you has to have a nose bleed from all that tumbling, and got my nice stair well all dirty again. What is the meaning of this?" she raised one of her massive teal eyebrows questioningly.

"Gym leader, Lenora!" Cheren yelped abruptly, picking himself up from the floor in one fluid motion to sit on his knees in front of the large black lady; his hair was in utter disarray, his bangs a scruffy mess with wild fly-aways covering every inch of his head, his metallic red glasses were hanging off his nose, comically askew. Even from over here, I could see the splotchy dirt marks from face-planting repeatedly along the stairs. I'm no one to make comments though, I probably looked just as bad has he kid, if not worse; Thorn had been frantically grappling to keep a grip on my head as we tumbled down the stony stair well, tearing up my head in the process; I played with my hair self-consciously, tucking the wild wavy strands behind me ears in an effort to conceal the disaster that they were.

"Yes?" Lenora replied patiently, still giving us that 'why-did-two-teens-just-come-falling-down-my-stair-well-just-now?' look.

Cheren quickly pushed himself to his feet, placing both booted feet exactly parallel to Lenora's, bending over in a low sweeping bow, his glasses teetering dangerously close to falling off his nose "We, or at least I am, sorry for our rude interruption. We, or should I say I because I was here first, are here to challenge you to a gym battle for the Basic Badge. I'm sorry, and I'm sure ONLY me, that I never made an appointment, but some things just HAPPEN" he gave me a sharp look out from under his hair. I sat back in surprise. _What did I do?_

"Hmm is that so?" Lenora asked, looking the two of us up and down.

"Yes. I was here first, but we both found your final clue at the same time, and when the passage opened up, we both fell down it as a result. I am quite sorry again for our abrupt entry." Cheren straightened back up; hands clasped behind his back "I would now like to take the opportunity to challenge you to a gym battle, if I may. Right here, and now."

"Wait a second, I landed down here first! I want to have the gym battle!" I cried, popping up from the ground and getting in his face. I pushed him aside, walking straight up to Lenora "I want to challenge you to a gym battle right now, and I won't take no for an answer!"

Cheren reared back up, shoving me aside "No, I have the right to claim the first battle, as I proposed it first!"

I threw myself back at him, slamming into his side, causing him to stumble over "Nuh-uh, I said I want if first!"

"Let go of me you-"

"I want it first! I landed on the ground before you, so I get to challenge her first!"

"I want to get stronger to defeat the champion!"

"I need to get strong to follow my dream!"

"Quit being greedy!"

"Quit being stubborn!"

"ENOUGH" Lenora's booming voice echoed over our squabbling, forcing us to turn and look at her. She was running a hand through her hair, looking a touch put out by the situation "You both are obviously very fiery trainers, and it's wonderful to see kids so dedicated to battling. I do, however, think you are both being a bit too stubborn with your own personal plights, that you can't even see what has happened around you." She nodded her chin in my direction "You're forgetting the first rule of being a trainer, and I find it disappointing your both too wrapped up in yourselves to notice" I turned, following her gaze to what she was gesturing at behind me: Eevee.

He was just sitting behind me, looking up at us with a pained expression on his face. At first glance, nothing seemed the matter other than the fact he was disappointed we were fighting again, but then I noticed the goopy red waterfall running down his ruffled golden brown coat, staining his cream-colored neck ruffles a deep rusty brown.

"Ahh, Eevee…" I uttered surprised, collapsing to the ground in front of him, knees kicking up dust and causing him to cough. I took his head in my hands, tilting it up, and moving it back and forth slowly, looking into his nose for the bleeding orifice. He winced as I ran my finger along the outside of his nose cavity, shrinking back slightly. He gave his nose a rub with his paw, the oozing blood coloring his paw the color of bloody mud.

_"I'm sorry, I didn't want to interrupt you, but you were fighting and its ok-"_

I stroked his head softly, peeling off a sweatband and running it through the stream of gooey nose blood trailing out from under his muzzle. "No, it's my fault for being so caught up in getting another gym badge that I didn't pay attention to anyone but myself…." Wow, it hadn't even been a day since Eevee had confided in me that he trusted me to always take care of him, and now my inattentiveness had gotten him hurt. "Is Thorn Ok?" I asked worriedly, mind flickering to my other, seemingly more injury-prone, partner.

Eevee's eyes had turned a bit hazy, but nodded his head to the left; I looked over there and saw Thorn, looking a touch scraped up, but otherwise ok. Like him, Lenora and Cheren had been watching me quietly as I tended to Eevee. _Was that a flicker of…. wanting… in Thorn's eyes? _Thorn did seem a little…. Off. His red eyes weren't flickering with sarcasm like usual, and he didn't seem at all like he had a snarky comment or a blunt statement in the making; he just looked… sad.

"Mina… you need two Pokémon to challenge this gym…" Cheren said quietly, his head tilted down, his eyes flickering up. He had put his hands in his pockets, fidgeting awkwardly.

I jumped at bit, starting to freak out inside; I turned my attention back to Eevee "You can fight, can't you?" I stroked his head, trying to encourage him to continue on. I turned and directed my words to Cheren and Lenora "He can still fight even though he's injured right? Is that against the rules?"

Lenora clucked disapprovingly, shaking her head slowly "Now, how could you propose such an awful thing? You should be taking care of it, instead of asking it to battle. Why is it you want this badge so much you're willing to put your own Pokémon at mortal risk for it? Why do you want this badge so bad you're willing to borderline abuse it?"

_Abuse, Abuse, Abuse…. _The word ran emptily in my head, poking at my mind with its jagged edges. I suddenly felt heartlessly cruel; why _did_ I want this badge so much? Was it a power thing, or a self-respect thing? _Is it your dream… was it what you want the most in the world? 'The strong never feel lonely….' _A phrase I was once told hit my mind, jabbing at it with pointy edges of its own; I froze. My dream… my dream that drove my very being… the reason I started out on this journey… the reason I wanted Pokémon in the first place… a dream that I had never told anyone, for fear they would reprimand me and tell me wrong and force me back to being what I was before all of this started. My dream was my essence, my fears…. My guilt…. My selfishness…. My ideals. The reason I didn't want to put Thorn away in his ball, the reason I felt lost when Thorn wasn't there… my dream… my cursed dream. _Maybe N was right…_ my mind finally said defeated.

I turned and petted Eevee's head again, looking at the stringy blood still dripping down his nose. Eevee didn't react, eyes on the ground awaiting my decision. _I can't let you fight… even if it means I cannot accomplish my goal right now… _ I finally decided. I sighed, giving his head a hard rub, then backing away "I'm not going to make him fight. I guess I'll just sit this one out for now. He's…" I looked down at Eevee's tilted head "He's more important than a gym badge." _I have to prove what Eevee said about me right…. I must take care of him… protect him… because… of my dream._

Cheren began to slowly nod, accepting my backing down, but Lenora's words cut his action off "That is good you're willing to put your own wants aside for your Pokémon's. I'm glad to see you are not at all the trainer I thought you were. However, I don't think you're going to have to sit out your battle…" she started to wander away back towards the rear of the room, which I had now noticed to be an office, with a big mahogany desk and three full-wall occupying bookshelves filled to the brim with spider web-free books; she turned and faced us, hands on her voluptuous hips "I hereby challenge you both to a double battle, one of each of your Pokémon verses two of mine!"

I did a double take. "Whaa?"

"But, ma'am, a traditional double battle traditionally is either between two trainers on each side, each with one Pokémon, or one trainer on each side, each with two Pokémon! I cannot possible comply with such bending of the rules…. it's not acceptable! It makes me feel…. dirty." Cheren argued frantically, mouth flapping like a Feebass's.

Lenora raised a cautious eyebrow; seeming to understand that Cheren was on the verge of hysteria "You want your gym badge, don't you?"

Cheren sunk to the floor, flopping over in a sort of bowing slump "More than ANYTHING"

"Then it's settled then. You two will take on me as a team, right now." Lenora wiped her hands on her apron, then dug around in one of her front pockets, withdrawing a pokeball. "Up on your feet, right now, the both of you! I won't have no spineless trainers fooling around in my gym! Up! I want to see what you're made of!"

I turned from Eevee to look at Thorn, who had apparently snuck up on me during the time I had looked away, and was now behind me. I gave him a quick once over; he didn't seem to be hurt other than a few scratches. "Thorn… are you OK to battle?"

Thorn blew an agitated puff of air in my direction, crossing his arms and eyeing me like an idiot _"How dare you insult me by saying such a thing. Of course I will fight; I am not some loser who gets beat up by stairs. The very idea that you would even considerate it for a moment revolts me, you pathetic ragamuffin."_

I smiled a small sour grin. _Sounds like he's just fine to me_. Eevee smiled despite the insult, patting Thorn on the back with one paw and holding my sweat band under his nose with the other. Thorn seemed to thaw a little bit by the kind gesture, his full on scowl lightening to a sour 'V'.

_The strong are never lonely…_

I picked up Eevee, carrying him back to the staircase, and putting him on the bottom step with firm orders to stay put. I walked back over to Thorn, nudging him with my foot forward. On the way past, I gave Cheren a sharp kick to the rear, causing him to lift his head from the floor, a tile-shaped imprint in the middle of his forehead. I held out my hand to him.

"Up. I want that badge as much as you do. Truce?"

Cheren's eyes flickered for a moment, but returned to their normal dim glow in a matter of seconds. He took my hand, rising to his feet, looking straight into my eyes "Truce."

"Very well then… let the match…. COMMENCE!" Lenora boomed from across the room, throwing a lever and standing back as the red and gold-tiled floor began to break in two, pulling apart to reveal a perfectly even ground battle field, the characteristic markings outlined in white chalk. A referee had come from nowhere, taking his spot down the middle line of the battle field. He raised two flags, one green one, for Lenora, and one red one, for Cheren and me.

"The gym battle between the gym leader, Lenora, and the challengers, Mina and Cheren, will now begin! Each side will use two Pokémon simultaneously in the match, with no substitutions for either side, and the match is over when all of one side's Pokémon are unable to battle."

"Thorn" I called, summoning my grass snake to my side. Cheren pulled out a pokeball, its red metallic cover shining in the lights above. Lenora across from us did the same as well, only holding one pokeball in each of her hands as she readied for the match.

The referee called us to silence, letting the full effect of the calm wash over us before letting the flood gates open. He looked between either side, checking if we were ready.

"Match…. Begin!"

"Thorn, you're up!"

"Tepig, I chose you!"

"Herdier and Watchog, come on out!"

The pops of three pokeballs and the scuffling of one Pokémon's feet filled the room, the cries of the responding Pokémon taking their place once the noise had receded. Lenora's two Pokémon stood proud in front of her, the scruffy-faced female Herdier bearing down on us with intimidating eyes, and the keen-eyed Watchog waggling its white-tipped fingers tauntingly in the air.

Beside Thorn, Cheren's Tepig had appeared, shaking its head wilding and snorting a small shower of embers. _"Tepig!" _it cried, sounding very proud of itself; _"I'm here!"_

Thorn gave the fire pig a sharp look out of the corner of his eye, his mouth curling distastefully at the sight of his battle partner; he took one large step to the left, creeping away from Tepig.

Tepig snorted angrily, Thorn's not-so-subtle movements not having eluded his eye. He marched right up to Thorn, giving him a sharp head butt to the side. Thorn was knocked over like a domino, landing flat on his back, staring straight up at Tepig. Thorn gave a hiss, sweeping Tepig's legs out from under him with his tail, causing Tepig to go tumbling hooves over head into the dirt, landing on his side to see a very smirking Thorn.

"Eh… Thorn…. Don't start…" I hissed lowly, noticing the squabble about to happen. Cheren noticed as well, giving Tepig a sharp look, mouthing 'get up NOW'.

Tepig stuck his tongue out at Cheren, turning back to Thorn. He pushed himself up onto his legs, giving a resounding squeal, and shot a storm of coal-hot embers at Thorn, singing him all over his exposed stomach. Thorn shrieked in pain, flipping over to his feet in an effort to get the flaming bits off his sensitive stomach. His pupils constricted to nothing but a black sliver in the raging red sea that was his eyes, and launched himself at Tepig, smacking him repeatedly across the face with his hands, nothing but a flurry of blind fury.

"Thorn!" I cried, about to rush forward when a voice stopped me.

"Herdier use Take Down! Watchog, Crunch!"

The two attacking Pokémon came whooshing by at an astonishing speed, running right by my feet as they attacked the brawling Pokémon underneath me. Herdier slammed into Thorn, knocking him off Tepig's chest and pounding him into the dirt with its sheer force. Watchog sunk its teeth into Tepig's soft belly, swinging him once before letting him sail across the floor and into the right-side wall. Just as quick as they came, they flew back to Lenora, effectively getting out of range of any counter attacks we might have been able to launch right this second.

"Do you see what your Tepig did?! He got us attacked because of his stupid anger issues! Keep him in control!" I spat angrily at Cheren, face a mask of burning fury.

"Tepig, use Gyro Ball! Hit them both!" Cheren commanded, ignoring me completely. I gritted my teeth, turning back to Thorn, getting back into the battle.

"Use Vine Whip! Hit them both before Tepig can!" Thorn did as commanded, giving a half twirl as his vines snaked out from his leafy collar, lashing out at an amazing speed to strike down Watchog and Herdier before Tepig could even get half way across the field. Thorn's attacked lashed them out of the way, causing Tepig to go spiraling into the dirt, landing with a sharp impact that send up a shower of rocky battle-field bits.

Cheren turned to me now, completely enraged "What was that for?! You completely messed up my shot!"

"Consider us even then. Thorn, use Wrap on Watchog! It seems to be the stronger of the two!" I shot back, spurring Thorn onward without a second thought about Cheren.

Thorn sped quickly across the field, leaping into the air as soon as Watchog came into range. "Ah, correct you are challenger! Watchog's greater level and speed is the muscle of my team! Watchog, Retaliate!" Lenora boomed over the noises of battle, causing my eyes to spread wide as saucers as the attack played out in front of me.

Thorn reached Watchog, about to speed under its feet, but Watchog lashed out, whipping Thorn around by the tail into the air. Thorn was helping in mid-fall, arms and legs waving frantically to catch something in his devastating descent. Watchog leapt into the air, slicing down on Thorn with its clawed hand with nothing but a white blur, sending Thorn plummeting into the dirt where Herdier was waiting.

"Herdier use Bite!"

"Tepig, use Flame Charge!"

A shooting column of spiraling fire flew by, knocking Herdier onto its side several feet away. Thorn collided with the ground, bouncing twice before coming to a flop on his stomach in the middle of the battle field. He pushed himself to a standing, shaking the dirt collected from the collision in a flurry of leaves and tail. I eyed Tepig across the field, who was deftly dodging rapid fire attacks from both Watchog and Herdier, spraying them with showers of flaming embers when it got the chance. I gritted my teeth. _Tepig's getting more action then us… I need Thorn to get stronger…. I need to change that._

"Thorn, use Leaf Tornado!" Thorn gave a small nod, launching himself into the air, and began to contort himself in dizzying circles, throwing his body around in a tight circle to summon up a vortex. A wild flurry of sharp-edged three-pronged leaves began to form, rotating rapidly as Thorn spun them out. With a final flick of his tail, Thorn shot off the barrage of swirling leaves at his opponents, landing effortlessly on the ground to watch the attack do its work.

The leaves sheered by Watchog first, knocking it sideways with the pure power from the element of surprise. Herdier was swept under, sharp leaves raking over its eyes, causing it to howl in pain. Tepig rolled out of the wall just as the attack reared up to strike again, speeding away from the wave of sharp foliage.

I took a deep breath, watching Thorn's attack do its work; the screams of Lenora's Pokémon filled the gym, ringing inside the four walls with an alarming shrillness. I let their screams filter through my ears, the pain-filled crying doing nothing to alter my insides. I felt no lingering regret for what I was doing this time, none of the guilt I had felt when I had won over N's Purrloin that first day we battle. _It is the way of the battle…. The strong are never lonely._

"Ah, I see you are trying to lower their accuracy, but that will do nothing deter their next attacks! Herdier, Watchog, Retaliate!" Lenora cried, pushing her Pokémon forward.

Watchog shot out of the swirling leaf vortex, shattering the spinning affect in the process. It had several red scratched running across its face, ripping across its eyes, but it made a bee-line for Thorn, crashing into him with its full weight. Herdier struck second, mowing Thorn over from the side. Thorn did a drunken summersault in mid-air, landing flat out on his back when he finally touched the ground.

"Thorn!" I cried, frantic that my plan backfired.

"Tepig, use Flame Charge!" Cheren yelled, pointing Tepig on towards Thorn's direction, where both of Lenora's Pokémon still lingered on.

_"Here I gooooooooooo!" _Tepig cried, cloaking itself in a rapid fire spin of flames, crashing through both of Lenora's Pokémon in a blink of an eye. The two were blown away, tumbling across the battle field feet over heads in backwards summersaults. Tepig stomped triumphantly over Thorn head, throwing his back, calling out loud _"TTTTTTEEEEEEEEPPP!". _Thorn was up in a flash, sending a sharp hiss in Tepig's direction, causing the fire pig to stumble backwards.

I whipped my head over in Cheren's direction "Stop doing that! You're getting in the way!" I growled angrily. "Let us handle it on our own!" _where was this coming from?_

Cheren's head snapped in my direction, snarling back "I'm the one who had to keep saving your butt, and _I'm _getting in the way! You're the one who keeps ruining my shots!"

"Because you keep hogging them all! We can handle it on our own! I need Thorn to be stronger, and you keep interfering!" I growled back, a deep growl rising in my throat.

Cheren jabbed a finger at his chest, face flaming up in rage "Where is this coming from?! I'm your partner, and you said truce! Stop being stupid and just let me help!"

I turned away, snarling in a chilling voice "Well consider the truce off. Your Tepig started this all, and I don't Thorn's agility being put down by your Tepig's stupid pride. Thorn, Leaf Tornado!"

Thorn sent off another swirling cyclone of leaves ripping across the field, tearing right by Tepig's nose. Tepig recoiled as a sharp leaf scraped across his nose, causing it to screech out, making Cheren shout worriedly to it.

"Tepig, come back! I'll heal y-"

"Watchog, Hypnosis!"

The call came from nowhere, blindsiding us. A pulsating beam of slightly glowing rings shot through the air, aiming for the still suspended Thorn.

"Thorn!"

Thorn shrieked in surprise, but still had enough control over his Leaf Tornado to summon all the leaves back over to him, cutting off the attack and making the glowing rings disperse into sparkly bits of sleep powder. The damaged leaves swirled slowly to the ground, simulating a sort of raining sequence.

Cheren was back yelling at me the moment the attack dispersed "See?! That didn't work! You need me!"

I didn't even give him the curtsy of seeing my face "I've got this. Thorn use Wrap!" Thorn shot off to accommodate the command, aiming for Watchog, who was just climbing back on its feet.

Cheren gritted his teeth, turning back to the battle "Quit being so stubborn! Tepig use Fla-"

"Double Retaliate!"

Before Tepig could even move, Thorn was being thrown back into him from being run over by Watchog and Herdier. They collapsed in a heap on the ground, both quivering as they tried to push themselves to their feet. Thorn swatted Tepig away with his tail, leaping up as the next command flew from my mouth.

"Use Vine Whip! Strike before anyone can move!"

"Stop it! Can't you see that's what they want?!" Cheren cried, pulling his gaze from his stumbling Tepig on the ground. "Retaliate's power doubles every time the Pokémon using the attack is target by another attack! If we keep charging head on, we're just powering them up to take us out! We should be taking time to lower their other stats as much as we can!"

"Leave me alone Cheren! We've got this!"

Thorn's vines surged forward, slapping across Herdier's face before Lenora's cry rung out across the gym.

"Retaliate!"

Thorn was flung back into the ground skidding to a stop at my feet. He look up through a half closed red eye, painful-looking bruises and shallow cuts dotting his face. _"Mina…?"_

"Mina! Snap out of it! Look at him, he's losing! Let us help!"

"He's fine! Thorn use-"

"MINA! Where is this coming from?!" Cheren cried frantically, making me turn and see him completely up in my face, hands clamped over my shoulders, squeezing me so tight I though the frail bones within would snap under his desperate pressure.

My bones did not snap; I snapped "I NEED THORN TO BE STRONGER! HE HAS TO BE STRONGER TO MAKE MY DREAM COME TRUE! THE STRONG ARE NEVER LONELY!" I yelled right in his face, feeling like all of my insides were pouring out of my mouth in the form of a violent surge of fear and secret longing. _Where is this coming from?!_

Cheren shrank back fearfully at my rage, his deep blue eyes shrinking to the size of pennies in the wide expanse of the white of his eyes. I peeled is hands off my shoulders, and he put up no resistance as they fell flimsy to his sides. I wrenched myself away from his to command Thorn again.

"Thorn use Leaf Tornado! But hold it instead of firing!"

Thorn hefted himself to a standing, whipping his tail around to form a large rotating mass of sharp leaves. All watched on as the cyclone grew wider as more and more three-pronged leaves sharpened to a point joined the rotating vortex of pain. Just as the ball seemed to be able to hold no more, I issued the final part of Thorn's command.

"Aim half of them at Tepig"

Thorn's concentration broke. He turned right in the middle of the vortex, looking over his should with a wide-eyed look of the complete and utter surprise I had never seen him ever make. Then the cyclone of leaves exploded.

Without Thorn's control, the pure amount of energy in the ball overwhelmed the weak hold Thorn still had on it. The leaves shot everywhere, clouding the air with green spinning razors. They washed over the field, the shrieks of all present rising above the storm into the air.

Tepig's wail could be heard the loudest, a large chunk having ran right through him, pinning him to the ground as the leaves shredded through him. Thorn ducked low to the ground, his own leaf storm intent on ripping through him. Herdier's sharp bark echoed in the gym, which was quickly drowned as more leaves flew at it, silencing the bark in the gurgling sound of leaves. Thorn started to rise to his feet, trying to regain control of the storm. He held his hands up, eyes closed tight as he sought to call off the attack, but he was attacked from the side in the midst of all the chaos, catching us all off guard.

"Hypnosis!"

Thorn's eyes grew wide as the ring-shaped beams broke through the leaf cyclone, shattering all the leaves upon impact. Thorn eyes grew wide as the sight of the oncoming beam struck fear into him. At the last possible second, he lunged to the side, the beams just missing his tail, and hitting the target behind him: Tepig.

The beams broke right through Tepig, and he only gave a small, exhausted shutter before falling to a heap on the ground, asleep.

"TEPI-"

Cheren's cry was cut off as a still kicking Herdier sprung up out of nowhere, ready to accommodate Lenora's command.

"Bite!" Herdier clamped its teeth around Tepig's leg, giving it a good chomp, then gave a tight twirl, letting Tepig go spinning through the air like a disk into the wall on the right side of the gym with a heart-breaking _DDDDDOOOOONNNNNGGGGGGGG._

The noise of Tepig's defeat rang throughout the gym hollowly, silencing us all until Tepig's body fell from the indent it had made into the side of the gym. Tepig's limp body fell to the floor, landing on its back, with its face angled towards us. His eyes were closed tight, his chest barely rising. Tepig had fainted.

"Tepig…." Cheren mumbled softly, looking in disbelief at the crippled creature laying a few feet away from him, unable to believe his Pokémon had lost so badly. He made no move to return it.

I wasn't about to let myself get sidetracked by Tepig's defeat; the battle was still raging, and Lenora had proved that so even in the midst of pure and utter chaos. "Thorn!" I called, waiting for his reply.

Thorn didn't even look at me over his shoulder, simply waving his hand as a sign her heard me. It was time to finish this, while everyone was still semi-still from Tepig's impact upon defeat. "Thorn use Vine Whip!"

Thorn's vines raced forward, aiming for the stock-still Watchog across the floor, intent on their mission to end this in a flailing beating of glory.

"Watchog, Retaliate." Lenora's command was nothing but a voice now, all the former fire replaced by the desire to simply end it all.

A vine reached Watchog, rearing back to swipe it across its face, when Watchog reached out, latching on to the vine, and giving it a sharp tug. Thorn's feet were peeled off the ground, and he went flying through the air, his attached vine leading to his increasingly clear coming doom. Watchog wound up his fist, planting right in Thorn's face; Thorn went sailing through the air, landing in a beaten heap at my feet.

_"Mina….?" _He whimpered, face nothing but a mask of disbelief.

"Both Snivy and Tepig are unable to battle, which means this match goes to the gym leader, Lenora!"

I crouched down; reaching for Thorn's bruised head, when Lenora's sharp words cut through my hazy mind.

"This battle is over. Get out of my sight."

**OOOOOOOOO**

Clyde tossed us out. I landed on my butt, Thorn landing in my lap. Clyde could not pick up Cheren, leaving him to drag his out of the building, depositing him outside and tossing Tepig's pokeball at him. Moments later Eevee's ball landed in my lap. The heavy wooden doors of the gym were closed with a bang of finality. It was night time outside.

Cheren didn't even turn to look at me, he just stared off into the night while he spoke. "I expected more from you."

I smiled a biter smile, letting out a bitter bark of a laugh, bitterly separating the thing inhabiting my lap. "How can you say that. I gave it my all."

Again, Cheren didn't look at me. "You were reckless. You were selfish. I know you can do better than that."

I couldn't hold back the next sharp snarl from escaping my lips "Well then maybe you don't know me all that well then."

Cheren, clasped the bridge of his nose, taking in five deep breathes in an effort to channel himself into something more than an angry outburst. Finally he turned to look at me, his face a dead mask of disappointment. "You need to stop lying, to both yourself and to me. I've known you for eleven years, and you have never acted that way ever. You may say it's for the sake of your dream, but I just think you don't know what to do anymore. You need to make up your own mind before you start making decisions for others, because you have a whole lot more to worry about now. You have two precious lives underneath you right now. And if you can't figure out what you want, then you will never be able to fully take care of them. I don't think you were anybody but the person I called a friend tonight, but if those were your true colors shining through, then I don't know how much I still think of you anymore." Cheren whipped his head around, and stalked off into the night without another word, or lingering glance. I listened to him go until the sound on his heels hitting the concrete sidewalk could be heard no more, and another voice caught my attention.

_"Are you doing to return me to my ball now?" _Thorn's voice came from behind. I turned, and saw he had climbed off my lap, and was now several feet away, with his back turned to me. I felt all the anger and hurt start to drain out of me, and the overwhelming feeling of exhaustion taking their place.

"Thorn… I… no…. no I'm not. Do you want to go back into your ball?"

Thorn was quiet for a moment. _"I don't want to be around you right now."_

His words cut through my chest like a knife, all the events of this evening and their severity finally settling over me full force. Hurt pervaded every corner of my soul, and it began to show in my voice "Are… are you abandoning me?"

Thorn didn't do anything. _"I just don't want to be near you right now."_

His words were so sharp and void of emotion, they cut through my heart again, their full meaning settling over me. I began to reach into my bag, retracting my hand with his pokeball in it. Slowly, creakingly slowly, I inched down to the ground, and rolled the ball to his feet; it knocked against his tail and it stopped rolling.

Thorn looked over his should at it, his face unchanging. He reached backwards, picking it up and holding it in his small hands. He didn't say anything else; he just picked it up and began to stagger away, the injuries from the battle taking a toll of his beaten body.

Watching him go, a whisper escaped my lips "I did it for you…."

Thorn stopped at the words, completely silent. The dry wind of the night blew through the empty town, echoing lonely for a few moments before Thorn replied. _"No. No you didn't."_

He walked off, leaving me to stare blankly at the pokeball in my lap.

* * *

**Hi everyone, its Pokegirl again, bringing you the next chapter of B&W**

**Thorn-"I'm here to if anyone cares"**

**So... um... a bit of a heavy chapter? And yes, I really did lose to Lenora the first time I took her on. That Watchog. All I have to frickin' say is HER WATCHOG.**

**Um... bye, I guess? Read and review please? Caramelldansen?**


	20. Chapter 19: The Responsible Thing

Chapter 19: The Responsible Thing

_He heard the colossal brass bells as they rang high above the echoing throne room in the tower above, the heavy metal balls tethered within their brass domes clanging against their sides, their ominous tone something between that of heaven's anthem and hell's calling. He heard the sounds of seven silken robes brushing the ground as one robe's wearer took evenly paced, controlled steps towards the front of the room, his hands suspended in midair, holding a spiked coronet in his outstretched hands, single red eye trained forward._

_The red-eyed man inhaled slow breaths, keeping their pace in time with his steps. This was only the beginning of his plan; the foundation for all that was to come. His ideals would be realized, and all because of this single moment. The moment he crowned a king to do his bidding whilst he worked for his true goal in the shadows. A pure heart and mind that could be molded like clay to fit the role he was needed for…_

_The red-eyed man had reached the front of the crowd in the room, raising his hands high above his head and calling the already deathly silent room to his attention. He tilted his head back, his commanding voice drowning out the receding echoes from the bells. "My subjects! It is tonight we come and celebrate the official commencing of Team Plasma's reign! It is tonight, a boy becomes a man and sits upon this throne as our ruler! Our king! Our catalyst to the future!"_

_He was met with a resounding roar in response, the thick crowds surrounding the man in a semi-circle cheering for their sage's magnificent words. The six other robed men, however, remained silent, eyes closed as their heads were tilted towards the ground._

_Hidden behind the doors leading into the room, his chest began to swell a bit. He didn't deserve this. He just wanted his dream… his dream of Pokémon and humans being equals…. to come true. A sudden wave of nausea hit him full force, threatening to knock him back into the shadowy corner he had just pushed himself away from to keep from hiding in like a scared child. He instead stood up tall, allowing himself three breathes to calm himself. Kings had no time for weakness. Kings had to be strong for their subjects. King had to seal their emotions for the sake of others._

_"Are you quite alright? Do you need to sit down?" the pink-haired young woman standing next to him asked, concern flickering in her cherry blossom eyes. She had been standing quietly next to him the entire time; her eyes focused on their father standing tall in the other room, but had turned immediately to him at the first sign of ill-will. She reached forward to feel his cheeks for fever, but he pushed her hand away, giving her a reassuring smile._

_"Fear not, I am well. Go on in with your sister. There is no need to tend to me anymore. Any imperfections not fixed by now will be dealt with by father later. Go on" he gave her a sweeping gesture of his arm from beneath his cloak, the golden threads hand-stitched onto the edges gleaming in the low light from the throne room as the cloak fluttered back into place at his side. Inside, he mentally scowled at the cloak, all its finery and expensiveness completely illogical and completely useless; the insides were itchy and the colors were all completely machine-formulated, all far too bright to even be considered natural colors of the earth._

_The pink-haired woman began to reason something to him, but was cut off by her golden-haired sister "Come now, Anthea. Father will be expecting us to be at his side once the king comes in. Best not disappoint." The golden-haired woman gave her brother a smile, before taking her sister by the hand and pulling her silently through the heavy wooden doors into the throne room. The pink-haired sister dared lean back to give him a kiss on the cheek, waving her fingers at him encouragingly as she disappeared from view. He somehow repressed the blush threatening to arise on his cheeks; they were his sisters, but he still got terribly embarrassed when they showed him any affection. He hoped they wouldn't have to push around too many people or have to stand in the back of the cavernous room. Father would not like that._

_He gave himself the privilege of three more calming breathes; eyes closed into darkness, but his ears still open to catch the blast of trumpets that would be his cue. In the meantime, he listened to the words coming out of his father's mouth, the praise pouring from his lips surprising. He hardly ever praised him, much less in public. Was this all rehearsed? He caught the words 'savior' and 'intelligent' and even 'holy' more than once. The unfamiliar words rolled off his brain, soaking into his mind, telling himself that 'yes, this was me. I am a savior. I am a truth-seeker'._

_The shrill blast of trumpets was called from the room, summoning his attention back to the coronation, and the heavy black-brown wood doors hiding him, the boy-about-to-become-a-man, from the gawking eyes of the room were flung open, revealing him to the entirety of the discerning room. Instead of cowering and shrinking away from all the eyes trained on his, he stood tall, gleaming emerald eyes fixed on the man in front of him, letting his subjects see their holy king in all his glory. He took his first step into the room, then another, the six robes on the ground rising with him as he passed each of them on his way to the man in the front. On his way to his gleaming throne. They gave him nods of respect as he passed, but he replied none of them; let the people know their places, just like his father always said. He did risk a glance at his two sisters as he passed, meeting their eyes for only the briefest to seconds before returning them forward; like a king should. Inside he was happy that they had found their way to the front._

_Staring into his future like this, he could not help but thinking back to the days so long past before this, when he ran wild and free, nothing but the earth and the sky to hold him down. When his responsibilities were non-existent, and he didn't have to wear itchy, gold-infused robes for the satisfaction of others; when all he had to think about was playing with a friend…._

N was suddenly shaken by a blast of frigid air to his face, the scenes being acted out in his mind shattering like a piece of frail glass in a wild tornado. In his dream-state, he had forgotten where he was, his hands flying out to his sides to catch him, should he be falling; they made contact with a rough and blissfully solid surface, settling the fear of unknowingness in his mind. He sucked in a deep grateful breath when realization flooded back to him. He dug his fingers into the stones underneath him, feeling their grating grip on his fingers grounding him back in the real world.

He was on the roof, the perfectly square stone bricks underneath him lifting him up into the night sky. They had grown cold over the past few hours, the streaming sun having set some time ago. He settled back onto his elbows again, lifting his head to he could see through his bangs up into the deep violet sky. His hat fell off his head, like it tended to do, but he made no move to grab it; he thought back to his dream-memory.

It had been one of the few times in his entire life that N's surrogate father had praised him in any way, which made the memory very special to him; actually it was the only time. N's struggles to please his father were often in vain, nothing but perfection required of him from his father. He was a constant disappointment, and his father never hesitated to remind him so. Not that N could blame him; N's efforts to become accustomed to palace life had been a troublesome journey of embarrassment and strife, and he still often craved the refuge the outdoors provided for him rather than the supposed comforts of the confines of the stone rooms beneath his feet. Hence, him being on the roof.

N had always liked the roof; it made him closer to the sky. He had always been fascinated with the hot balls of gas shining off in the distance, their glimmering beauty only possible because of the elegant formulas that caused such gases to glow and reflect. The entire world seemed free up here, the wind free to blow without any obstruction by trees or stone walls; the sky free to stretch across the entire world, completely visible without buildings or mountains to obscure its violet majesty; the Pokémon free to fly overhead, without fear of spiraling to the earth, as there was no earth up here. Only the sky and freedom. N loved the feeling of liberty he got every time he was up here, however false that allusion of freedom might really be. Compared to the roof, his bedchamber was a cage, the five walls shaping it into a pentagon seeming to only want to contain him, suppressing him and all his dreams; they made him feel trapped. N did not like feeling trapped.

He had fled the dim halls below in an effort to escape his own mind; it had been clawing at him all day and it was starting to give him a headache.

_"Your father said kings should always speak their minds. Kings are not in a position to hold anything back." _a small part of him jabbed at him in the back of his mind.

N failed to suppress the groan that wormed its way out of his mouth, pinching the bridge of his nose as he replied out loud to himself "Well, that would be the case if the reason of issue was not father's fault in the first place."

He felt his mental self cross his arms _"It's been eating at you since it happened. You should confront him like a king, not a coward!"_

N grimaced back "Or I cannot confront him at all. There is no need to agitate those lying peacefully. Besides, I have seen much worse than that little display of tyranny." N shuffled nervously at his own words. He knew his mental self could sense his uneasiness, and wouldn't hesitate to use it against him.

_"You may have seen much worse than that had been, but it kills you nonetheless. You swore to never do harm to any Pokémon, and not speaking up is just another way of doing so. Speak to him, or I will do it for you."_

N could not but scoff at himself "You are nothing but another version of me in my mind. You do not exist."

Mental N gave a small smile _"Then what is the purpose of me then, if not to act as an advisor to my weaker half? You will talk to him, and he will listen. You were raised to be a king. Show him that none of his lessons have gone to waste."_

N sighed. This was a normal ritual betwixt the two of them. He would reason for reticence, the other him would reason for the opposite, whatever that was in the situation. While it got him quite a few odd looks from others when they heard him, it helped him feel less lonely.

He pushed himself to his feet, using his toe to open the splintering wooden door that was actually just a board hinged over a square-cut hole in the stone ground. It hit the stones with a light _thwack, _and a soft light from the torch-lit passage underneath began to filter through the door. N gave himself the privilege of exhaling one more nerve-wracked breath, and then began to trek down the glowing stairwell.

It was the responsible thing to do.

**OOOOOOOOO**

"Hi mom."

"Mina! Well this is a surprise! Ah-"

There was the clang of a few objects off screen and the sound a something being pushed away and items landing in the trashcan. She reappeared back on screen, smile elated and hopeful. "It's so nice to see you, honey! How are you?"

I gave her a weak smile, fighting back the evil grimace threatening to plaster itself to my face. I had to keep my emotions under control.

"O-oh, I'm doing ok, I'm just in Nacrene city now. Enjoying the forest…." a light breeze swept through the area, lifting my hair off my shoulders and blowing it around; it was out of its ponytail, causing it to blow into my face, giving me a mouthful of slightly dirt-tasting hair; I scowled. I think the forest was mocking me.

My mom was set into a fit of giggles on screen. "Oh, dear!" She covered her mouth guiltily as she tried to contain her giggles.

Despite getting a good taste of my dirty hair, I smiled hearing my mother laugh. She didn't do it nearly as often as she used to, and it made her entire face light up, giving life to her solemn features. I ran my hands through my hair, pulling it off to the side and twisting it into a half-braid before tucking it behind my shoulder.

"Actually I just took on the Nacrene gym…"

Mom's eyes light up, her geode-blue irises sparkling with fond memories "Oh, did you, now? Is Lenora as strong as ever?"

"Um… yeah. I kinda lost to her… um…."

"Oh, oh! Well it's nothing to be ashamed of. As long as you keep trying is what's important. Oh…." My mother's head looked back and forth, sweeping her gaze through the screen, seemingly looking for something. "Where's your Snivy?"

"Er… um…" my eyes flicked back and forth worriedly; a trickle of sweat began to creep down my neck, its slow staggering pace making me even more nervous. "He's um…. sleeping right now. Yup, sleeping. A-actually, I called to ask you something…"

"Hmm? What is it dear?" My mother cocked her head to the side.

I used the hand that wasn't holding my Xtranseiver to mess with my bangs, tucking them behind my ears so I could see my mom again. "Could please, um, send my-"

"Oh. OH! Yes! Yes, I will." Mother's eyes lit up happily, nodding her head realizing what I was asking for. "Is it ok if I send it to Castelia city instead of to Nacrene? It's where you're heading next, right? I'd rather have it waiting there for you than you just sitting around waiting for it! With how fast you kids move these days…" she smiled.

"Cool, thanks."

"No problem dear…" the air between us fell silent, leaving me with an uneasy feeling. When this happened, I would usually say something unknowingly cold or she would start talking about how Gavin's birthday was only a few weeks away, and we would end up fighting or crying. I racked my brain, trying to find something to say that would keep both of us from acting like emotional idiots. I started to bit my lip, and then mom spoke again.

"Mina, you seem a little more off than normal. Is something bugging you?"

I chomped down hard on my lip, making me wince. I looked at my mom through the Xtranseiver's screen, looking deep into her wondering eyes. I began furiously chewing on the inside of my mouth, now that my lip was tingly from the chomp; I was aching to tell somebody else about what had happened last night, but the sheer embarrassment of having to admit I acted like a lunatic was keeping my mouth shut. I opted for lying again.

"Oh, my loss just got me kinda bummed out. Thorn's been super mood-swingy lately and Eevee's having a hard time adjusting and Cheren's a jerk and Bianca is a child and I met this guy I remember from Striaton City who wears this suit and is slightly country and…" Complete illogical nonsense kept spewing from my mouth, sounding completely unconvincing of my 'I'm-totally-not-a-mess-right-now-why-do-you-ask?' attitude. I could just _feel_ Thorn smacking me upside the head for all this stupid rambling.

_Open mouth, insert foot, and go hide in shame._

Mom burst out laughing again, momentarily silencing my mental bashing. "Oh, well it seems like your life is very interesting right now! Oh, how I miss that…" Mother smiled nostalgically. "But even though you might feel down right now, the most important thing to remember that you'll always have your Pokémon beside you. No matter how difficult things get, they'll always be there to cheer you on and give you strength. It may just be a hunch right now, but I know you'll be an amazingly strong and compassionate trainer one day. I see potential in you, sweetie. You'll make it through this rough patch, I just know it."

"Hm?" I felt my insides start to soften, looking at the gentle smile on my mom's face. She looked so earnest, like she truly believed that I would be a great Pokémon trainer someday. The fact that she believed in me so much warmed me up from the inside out.

_If only she knew the truth… _my mind said bitterly, shattering the warmth inside me like a cruel tidal wave of reality. _I can't tell her anything….. she would lose faith in me if I did. _

_ I-I can't… I can't take care of anybody. Not Thorn, not Eevee…. not my friends…. not even myself… _ I admitted in defeat.

"Oh, um, I have one more question for you, mom."

"Hmm? What is that, dear?"

My mind wandered to Eevee again, who was still injured in his pokeball sitting in the bottom of my bag, soaking up every drop of my guilt that wasn't going to the still-missing Thorn. "How did Uncle Mike know about my journey? I never told him about it and when I visited him, he had something for me for starting my journey."

Mom smiled again. "Oh, I sent him a letter. I hadn't spoken with him a long time, and I thought telling him about you would be a great reason to start again. I must say, I haven't written any letters since that last time I wrote one to Lenora years ago. I think I'm going to keep sending a few every week, just to see if I can reconnect with some old friends." She was looking down, eyes a little glassy, smiling at the fond memories that were playing out in her head.

"Oh, cool then. Thanks mom, I'll call you soon."

"Bye dear, I love y-"

I switched off the Xtransiever before she could finish. I didn't need another dose of guilt hammering at my soul right now.

Call it a quirk, every time I heard those words said to me, those cursed, warm words that normally made a person feel warm and accepted, I died a little inside. I died because it was really just her allusion of me; the lie I had been living to make her happy. But because of that, I couldn't tell her I loved her. She loved the 'good little girl' lie that I had been for the past four years. More or less.

Shortly after my dad got sick and died, my mom started to fall apart. She wouldn't smile. She would hardly move. She would mumble strange things to herself. She hardly lived. After dad died, she spent most of her time curled up on the couch with a tissue in her hand and her back to the world. I had to take on the roles she formerly had occupied, fruitlessly trying to clean bathrooms and cook meals to no avail. I became my mom's rock, keeping a smile when I had to force her to eat; being supportive during her constant spells of sleepiness and lethargy; hiding the things I had broken and the cuts and bruises I had gotten trying to make sure our lives didn't fall apart any more than they already had. But I was a pretty sucky housewife; our family fell apart anyway.

There was a click, and a rustle from a bush, and something flew through the dry undergrowth, earning a sequel of surprise from me. I coiled up to kick at whatever would appear, but it just slinked back into the shadows of the thicket and vanished. A sharp caw echoed in the distance, and I tensed up again, and only released when the echoes from the call had finally deadened.

I balled up my fists in defeat, plunging my red-flushed face into them and visibly shriveling.

"Dammit."

I had a headache again; I flung my Xtranseiver away, hearing it land in a patch of dry grass a few feet away. I grumbled at it over my shoulder, groping around in the grass in front of me, looking for something. When I finally found it, I stick my hand inside and pulled out a few crunchy tidbits. I shoved the cookies into my face, chewing through them angrily.

_Feel my anger, Twin Mints._ I flopped back against the rock I had been leaning against, shoving my hand back inside the box in search of more cookies.

I slept outside last night, seeking shelter from the wind behind the boulders of the clearing I was sitting in now. Lucky for me the night had been warm, completely unlike the typical winter-just-turned-spring evenings that we were supposed to be plagued with this time of year. I suppose the drought had been good for something.

I had been too worried I would find a very pissed Thorn back at the hotel room, should I have gone back, so instead I opted for the safer option of hiding in the woods. As strange as it sounds, I've actually grown pretty accustomed to listening to the noises of Pokémon running through the undergrowth and making their little chatter-y noises, despite the fact they still could make me jump. If anything, I found this charming. Nature was always changing, so I could always appreciate it in all of its forms.

The squawks of Pidove in the distance; the splashy-splashy noises from Tympole bouncing around in little crystal-clear puddles; all of it was normal to me now. Spending so much time traveling through the woods, I've actually gotten used to all of the little noises and sounds of the natural world around me, the aliveness of it all.

Being away from it is just… weird. Like staying in the Pokémon center during the night; I had found I liked it better when I was actually camping outside and could hear the world around me, or at least had the window open so the sounds of the night could reach my bed. The stone-cold silence of four enclosed wall just…. scared me. I munched on another cookie, hearing nothing but the sound of the teeth in my head grinding it down to cookie mush.

I had run down a pack of Iggly-Scout girls last night, forcing them to take my money and load me up with cookies. I had bought a half-case of every single kind of cookie they had; except the Lilli-Lemons, cause only nubes like those. I then dragged them back here to this rocky clearing, and proceeded to shove them all down my throat while ranting wildly about whatever came to my mind.

I shoved another Twin Mint my mouth, tossing the now empty box aside; it landed in a pile with all the other cookie boxes I had ravaged through, which was about 2/3 of my entire stash.

I wiped my crumb-covered fingers on my shorts, crossing my arms across my chest and growling some more. I was not the kind of person who just shuts off or sits in a corner and cries about their life when they get upset; nope, I eat. And rant. And curse. And eat some more. And whine a little bit. But mostly eat.

These Iggly-Scout cookies were only the latest of things I've torn apart since last night, which included several sausage pizza Hot Pockets (which I had to eat cold), and a family-sized jar of crunchy peanut butter. I reached for another box of cookies, this time coming in contact with a box of Coconut-Caramel Twists; I tore open the thin plastic packaging surrounding the tray of cookies within, grabbing a whole row of the twisty delights. I shoved them all in my mouth, eyeing my lumping pink bag with slight detestation.

Thorn had given his pokeball back to me after I had rolled it over to him; it was now nestled in the bottom of my back along with Eevee's ball, which had remained silent since I had put him up in it last night. What did it mean, leaving his ball with me? Was it an outright proclamation of 'Leave me the hell alone, I'm done with you' or the possibility of a promise to come back? Either way, after the initial shock of 'he just walked away…' came and went, I was still totally pissed he had just walked off _again _without any consent to me.

"Damn Thorn. Stupid Snivy. Stupid anger issues…." I grumbled to myself, clearing another row of cookies into my mouth. How could he do that to me? I was his owner.

My stupid conscience was there though to interrupt my pity party_. Shouldn't you be worried about where he is instead of what he's done…? _

I sucked in a tight breath. Of course it was right; I was here, moping about how I felt, when Thorn was still out there all by himself, likely still pissed off and in 'dismember-mode'. Left like this, he would probably end up tearing somebody's face off or being captured by the Pokémon Catcher for being a public threat; and I was here, being completely self-centered and selfish again.

"It's not like he even wants to see me right now. He said so himself…." I mumbled.

_He never said he didn't care though. And you gave him plenty of reason to be upset. What would you have done in that situation?_

I felt my insides curled up inside themselves, clenching at the words. What had been the matter with me last night? N… had he brung it out in me… his little spiel about trainers just using their Pokémon for their own gain and nothing else? Was I really still so hot on proving him wrong, I did the exact opposite?

_I acted like a complete tyrant…_ I was struck by the thought. _No, no… that can't be right? I'm not acting like the people Team Plasma accused all trainers of being, right? I-I treated my Pokémon fairly… with respect. I don't abuse them… or…?_

_ You were wrong._

The weight of the last thought crushed my squandering thoughts of righteousness. As much as it hurt to admit it, I was wrong. I… I was rude, and mean, and… selfish. Utterly selfish.

_I should have just listened to N. _He had been right all along; I just refused to see it. I was wrapped up in my own dreams and wants, and my Pokémon had just been tools to get me along.

Using Thorn's tail as a saw without asking; constantly threatening him with abuse; bad mouthing him; trying to force Eevee to battle when he was injured; forcing Thorn to attack his own partner so that he would get stronger. I had accused N of being a hypocrite, but in actuality, the truth was that I had been the faulty one. Thorn wouldn't always be so irritated and angry if I had treated him right.

_N… he's seen me first hand…. What does he really think of me…? Am I… just another ignorant trainer? Am I…. just a child he's humoring? He said that if I turned him away, he would be left to think whatever he was to think about me… how… how does he really think of me? _

I clutched at my chest; what was this feeling? Regret or remorse or just… pain? It… it hurts. It hurts to admit when you're wrong. This pain… was is about being wrong or being upset over Thorn? _I'm not sure…._

_WAIT. What the hell do I care what he thinks of me? But… then again….how can I not care….?_

"AHHHH! HEAVY THINKING HURTING MY BRAIN GUTS!" I shrieked in horror at myself, slapping my hands over my face in disgust. My cheeks stun from the slap, but it was a cool splash of reality, and the reality was I was being a serious baby.

Seriously, all this 'wrong and right' logic was hurting my brain.

_Food. More food, less thinking. _I reached for my forgotten box of cookies, cramming my fist in again and shoving a few more cookies in my mouth.

_Thinking when angry= bad. Food when angry= better._ I couldn't help but sigh sadly at myself though._ Honestly, when did I become such a deep person…?_

"Eh? Mina? Mina! There you are!" a voice squeaked from a nearby thicket of bushes, followed by the sound of crunching sticks and leaves being rustled together. I peered around the side of the rock into the forest, swallowing a sharp lump of cookie suddenly upon realizing who had stumbled accost me.

Bianca emerged from the forest, hat as big and jaunty as ever, breathing deeply from exertion. Oshawott was tangled up underneath her legs, falling over on himself in exhaustion. He planted his nose firmly in the ground between Bianca's feet, giving a final defeated _'Osha…' _before falling silent.

"Bianca….?" I mumbled stunned.

"Er, um, hi… I mean… uh…" Bianca staggered, picking up Oshawott from underneath her feet and stumbling over to sit down next to me. She plopped Oshawott in her lap, rearranging him just-so so he looked like a sleeping doll, rather than a passed-out Pokémon. "I mean, I'm so happy I found you. You've been missing for a day now, and I was worried. And, uh… I mean…" Bianca gulped down a big breath of air, steadying herself enough to look into my eyes "I need to talk to you."

"About what?"

Bianca pulled her skirt back down over her knees, as it had ridden up. "Well, I was worried about you. Thorn was running through town on his own last night without you, and I got worried and I couldn't find you anywhere. And uh…. Cheren told me about what happened last night." She bit her lip.

I felt my gaze narrow and my back tense up. "Oh, this is about that then." I didn't try to hide the bitter tone attached to the sentence. I crossed my arms, feeling irritation rise up in my chest again.

Bianca began to shuffle nervously. She pulled at her hat, picked at her stockings, refusing to look at me again. Finally her gaze settled upon the napping Oshawott in her lap. "I… I don't believe… ah… I mean…. I" she took a deep breath. "I'm sad about what happened."

I raised an eyebrow, scowling "Oh, are you sad about me losing or sad that I actually spoke my mind about what I wanted and took the measures to make it happen and proceeded to piss everyone off because of it?"

"Um… the second one."

I sighed, pulling my legs up indian-style "Well get on with it. What do you wanna say?"

Bianca sighed, her lime-green irises sad and water. "Cheren told me about how you acted last night, to him and to Thorn and Eevee. He said you keep lying to yourself… and your Pokémon suffer for it. I just want to know the truth, do you really know what you're doing anymore?"

I burst out with a sour laugh, "Of course I have a plan. Do you really think I'm making this up as I go? I'm trying to make my Pokémon stronger so that I can get stronger. I-"

"Is it because of what happened then?" Bianca asked quietly.

I was caught off guard. "Ma-maybe. It doesn't matter. I know what I'm doing, so if that's all you came here to say, then I'd appreciate if you left. I have some cookies that need eating." I recovered in a dead tone.

Bianca had tipped her head down, her side bangs flopping sadly against the sides of her forehead. She wrung her hands together in her lap, twisting them in and out of each other tensely. When she spoke, she sounded on the verge of tears, "I h-haven't had my Pokémon very long, but I've really began to realize something. This isn't like it was in professor Juniper's lab. I-if we mess up, there's no do-over. In real l-life there's n-no do-over. The d-decisions we m-make now affect not just us and our f-families anymore, but our P-pokemon too. Ss-so we c-can't just run around being reckless, b-because t-they s-ssuffer t-too."

"THEN WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?!" I finally screamed, not caring if I scared her out of her wits. I of all people knew better than anyone that there's no reset button to life. If there was, I still wouldn't have to live with all this guilt from the stupid things I've done in the past! All the hurt and anger and guilt had finally risen up over the edge and was rushing through my blood and hitting every nerve corner of my being. I gritted my teeth together, hearing the bones grate over each other.

"I want you to be responsible for once!" Bianca wailed, jumping to her feet and yelling with all her might. He was bending over, yelling right into my hat; Oshawott had gone tumbling off her lap and was now lying in a disgruntled heap on the ground.

I felt the anger reach a boiling point in my gut. I spat out "Be responsible for ONCE?! I've had to been responsible my whole life! I was the one who had to keep the house clean and my mother fed and my brother ok! I was the one who had to do everything for everyone for eight years! I was the one who told Rekikio that I-"

"THAT'S NOT THE SAME!" Bianca cried again, hot tears streaming down her face. "You have two wonderful, p-precious lives underneath you now! They're a lot more than just tools or property! You have to care for them because no one else will! It's a lot more than just feeding and bathing them, you have to love them and trust them! And they have to know it!"

"Are you kidding? Thorn is-"

"Thorn is your partner and he's out there alone and upset! He needs you and all you're doing here is whining about your issues! I don't know what happened last night, but I know that's not you!"

I felt my insides go limp. My pulse deadened; my mind dulled. "And if it is then what?"

"I-I-I…" Bianca huffed, tears still coursing down her cheeks. "Ehuhhuhhuhhhuhuuuuu!" she wailed, ripping a piece of paper and throwing it to the ground.

She scooped up Oshawott from her feet and took off for the woods, her legs flying out rapidly as she ran. She reached the breach of the clearing, turning around to scream back at me "T-that's from Cheren. Maybe that'll make you remember who you really are!"

She then turned on heel, dashing into the thick under growth, the sounds of her pounding feet echoing in my ears. I slumped back against the tin-colored boulder behind me, sinking to the ground, thoughts racing. _Bianca…. Bianca…. Bianca! Why… why did you… why….?_

I felt all the hurt and anger bubbling up again. _I know what I did was wrong… but at the time… it was all that I could think about then. I FINALLY revealed how I truly felt inside, and now what? People calling me wrong for my beliefs. N…. N realized who I was and accepted it. But Bianca… Cheren… why can't you? Why can't you realize who I… who I really am? _I felt no regret for my actions last night. I let my feelings free, but at what cost?

The piece of paper Bianca drove into the ground fluttered past my face; a tendril of fear spiked within me. It landed a few feet away in a path of grass, and I pounced on it, flattening it to the ground before it and whatever restoring words could float away in the wind. I sat back up, holding the neatly folded paper in my hands, insides churning. All the creases were exactly at ninety-degree angles; typical Cheren making me smile despite the hard ball of feelings in my gut.

I stretched out my legs, my feet coming in contact with something. There was a crushing sound and I looked around my feet to see the forgotten box of Coconut-Caramel twists. I picked up the cookie box, dusting off the bits of grass that had accumulated on it. I felt the urge to reach inside, to keep eating and moping around.

_"He needs you….!" _Bianca's voice ran through my head.

I was too much. Just too friggin much. I felt like an indecisive child caught in the midst of something far more complicated than her narrow mind could process; making choices that could potentially change your entire life were better left for adults to make.

The childish 'I want! I want' desire was goading me to choose moping over apologizing; the right thing was always the harder to do I was always told, but somehow they always expect a child to be able to tell the difference between right and wrong.

I balled up my fists again, hot tears boiling at the brink of my eyes. _I'm still a child._ I cried to myself. _I'm still a child._

_ Just because I'm sixteen doesn't make me a teenager. Just because I know how to tell the truth and be responsible doesn't mean I want too. Which was the right decision? Which choice would make me happy? Which choice was going to make others happy? _I looked back down at the cookie box, then over to my bag, stuck between what I wanted and the responsible thing to do.

_ What am I going to do?_

* * *

**HHHHHHIIIIIIIII! Ish Pokegirl and Thorn! Plus one more stowaway...**

**N-"Greetings"**

**He came on his own free will this time*SQUEE***

**Thorn-"Why he did is actually beyond me... unless of course he is suicidal..."**

**N-*pales***

**Unless you are totally dense, I bet you all noticed how the last chapter was a bit... heavy. Its kinda the beginning of purpose, the story is finally starting to move from happy silly nonsense to an actual story. 'Idealistic Greed' is only the first of many chapters like that. BE PREPARED!**

**I keep trying to give Mina that sort of greed that lays deep within us all, however her's is closer to the surface than normal. I also try to give Mina those childish feelings of indecision and wonder, but I don't think I'm doing anything any justice -.-**

**Well, thats it for now. Stay Pokemon my friends.**


	21. Chapter 20: History Lesson

Chapter 20: History Lesson

In the end, I opted for neither. I chose to read the note instead. And now, standing once again in the strangely empty Nacrene Museum library, I was starting to wonder if I was just avoiding the truth again.

_Well I'm no stranger from running from the truth before. It was always easier that way…_

"EAY! Whatter the likes of you think er' going here?! This is a decent establishment! No hoodlums allowed, short stuff!"

_Oh, it's you again, you sunglasses-wearing meat head._

I turned stiffly around to look into the sunglass-covered eyes of Clyde, who once again had snuck up behind me and was now glowering at me from his ungodly height. With his nose right in the back of my hat. I used a single finger to push his bumpy, perfect-triangle shaped nose out of my face. I stood back and crossed my arms. "Leave me alone, Mr. Anger Point, I got stuff that doesn't include stabbing your eyes out with a pencil to do." I scowled.

Mr. Ander Point crossed his arms across his masculine chest, ripped pectoral muscles showing through his thin white-collared shirt. He had shed the strait-lace suit, dressed today in a simple white button down that showed off his grossly-defined upper body muscles, a black lazily tied tie, and a pair of lint-less black slacks with brown suspenders clipped on to the waist taught over his broad shoulders. He gave me a sour look "I'm surprised you dared to show yer sorry butt around here, Booty Shorts. I ain't seen Lenora so pissed at a runt like yous in a long time."

I started to turn away from the hulking man, pursing my lips together and taking a step away from him. "Leave me alone, please. I'm not here to cause a fuss. I just wanna check out one thing, and then I'll be gone." I wrapped my fingers around the front strap of my pink bag, gripping to it tightly in an effort to keep my cool. All I honestly wanted to do was follow the note's direction so I could go back to the forest and mope. _Well it wasn't the most honest thing to do, but it was a start…_

"Am I gonna hafta throw yer butt out, midget? I can't have t' likes of yiz further screwing up the place with yer inexcusable behavior. Scram, 'for I has t' toss your tail out again!"

I snapped, I whipped around, shoving my face full up in his, ending up nose to nose with the buff man. I sucked in a breath, using every inch of my lungs for air, yelling right back in his face "I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING WRONG THIS TIME AROUND AND I DON'T APPERICIATE YOU THREATENIN ME WHEN I'M JUST HERE TO LOOK AT A DAMN BOOK. I'M SORRY FOR WHAT I DID LAST TIME AND I KNOW IT WAS WRONG, BUT PLEASE JUST LET ME LOOK AT THIS BOOK AND THEN I'LL LEAVE!" suddenly conscious of my actions, I pulled back, giving Clyde an honestly regretful face. "Please…?" I asked in a more normal voice. I felt the pokeball in my pocket vibrate a bit.

"Hm!" Clyde huffed, his frown lessening to a grimace. Finally he sighed, shaking a finger at me "Fine, yiz can stay. But one slip up and yer out, ya got me, Booty Shorts? I'm gonna go back to me desk now and give miself a pedicure, so don't you dare disturb me, shorty. ONE slip up!"

"Yeah, yeah…" I groaned, turning away from him to go before a sudden flash of gratitude washed over me. I stopped in my tracks "And… Thank you." I said sincere; he could have really just made up anything and tossed me out like that, but he didn't. I was honestly thankful for it.

I didn't hear anything in return, so I curiously looked back over my shoulder, a vein threatening to pop in my head when I saw Clyde. He was slowly stepping away, sunglasses up, eyes narrowed, and making a hand motion like he was gonna stab himself in the eyes with two fingers before turning them at the last second to point at me. Back and forth he went. _Watchin' you._

A weird look came over my face, a sort of creeped-out crooked smile at the weird display. I resisted the urge to flip him the bird, huffing instead and stalking off into the forest of maple-wood book shelves. I reached into my pocket, poking aside the pokeball within and withdrawing the crumpled up note I had stowed inside. I lifted it up to the light, scanning over the words again as I checked the ID numbers on the book shelves as I walked past.

The paper had become folded in many more messy, uneven creases than it had originally, me having borderline strangled it, ripped it apart, and shovedg it into various places with meaning of trying to find a place to stow it in the matter of twenty minutes of having possessed it. Looking at the criss-crossing uneven lines now running up and down the entirety of the note, summoning a whining Cheren in my head, I grimaced. His attention to details was un-human. Doing something like this to such a cleanly-folded, innocent piece of paper was probably a crime in his world.

The ball in my pocket wiggled again. I ignored it, eyes still scanning the wooden signs bracketed to the inside facing edges of the book shelves I passed by. I realized the entire library was quiet, not a single flipping page of a dusty book or the click of a ballpoint pen to be heard. _That explains why I wasn't murdered for making such a racket earlier _I thought sudden urge to try yodeling for the sake of testing the emptiness of the room was crushed quickly though; I had found the row I was looking for.

I took a sharp right turn into the isle, checking the note again for the correct call number for the book prescribed to me. I looked at the laminated sign sticky-tacked to the top ledge of the book shelf: "Unova History and Legends". I glanced from the sign to the row of soldier-straight books standing proudly in front of me, held up by two brass-colored fleur-de-lis bookends. The entire shelf was actually pretty small compared to the brimming bookshelves around it, only having four shelves, none of which were even filled up all the way. The top shelf seemed to contain thick guide books and road maps of the region; the third, the one directly in front of me, held the dusty history books containing the known recorded past of the region, along with a few stray guide books; the second shelf had what looked like picture books of chibi-style legendary Pokémon; the bottom shelf was empty.

I scanned the third shelf, knowing this was the one I needed. My eyes closed in on the correct call number, taped plainly to the side of the well-worn grey hardback book; 236.81. I snatched it from the shelf, flopping to the ground to uncover exactly what I was getting into.

Per the instructions on the note, which I might add are extremely detailed and thorough, instructed me to flip to page 19. I did as it commanded. The page was worn and fading, but the darkly print words typed across the page still shown proudly through. There was an undecipherable grey-printed picture on the opposite page that when you squinted seemed to sort of resemble an Oshawott in a tux or a tower of some sort, but I decided to ignore it, turning my attention to the words inscribed on the page instead. I just decided to start anywhere, commencing to read at the page break after a line separating two sections.

"_It is said that the great founders of Unova were once a single Dragon Pokémon of both strength and wisdom. The twin heroes who ruled the region at the time, both born of noble birth, decided in order to create a civilized Unova region, they should tame the magnificent beast, with plans to bring prosperity to both people and Pokémon alike. They succeeded in gaining the mutual trust of the creature, who had peculiar affinities for both fire and electricity, and gave it a holy name driven from the words of the ancient language of Unkown. With the dragon's power, the region thrived, flourishing into a living wonder at the time. However turmoil began to arise as the region grew more powerful and widespread, the brothers each yearning for something different in life—truth for the older brother and ideals for the younger. They began to argue, their verbal battles escalating to full on war, over whose side was stronger. The single dragon, torn by their truths and ideals, split into two separate Pokémon: Reshiram, who sided with the older twin, and Zekrom, who sided with the younger twin._

_A fierce clash ensued between the two dragons, but they were equally matched, and neither conquered the other. The resulting violence disturbed the peace, and in response, the twins set aside their differences, recognizing there was no right side. They began to rebuild the region they had ravaged through their battles, the world beginning to blossom again as the turn of the century held new prospect for the region. But many years later, the sons of the heroes resumed the fight, the lingering anger and shame from the last clash of wills escalating the fighting to an all new level, the fiercer feelings intensified by time making the separated dragons only stronger. Reshiram and Zekrom, once forces of good, destroyed the region with their immense fire and lightning power, taking the capitol city and one of the sons down with it. They subsequently disappeared afterward, and no one has seen trace of them since. The son of the truth-seeker prevailed both the dragons, taking the reins once more of his fallen region in an effort to usher in a new era of truth._

_It is thought that the surviving son tried to rebuild the capital, but failed when the area he had cultivated for it was succumbed to a devastating accident. Instead he turned the broken down castle into a fortress under the ground, hiding his most precious worldly possessions inside its sunken walls. No one is quite sure where it resides today, or even if it ever actually existed, and the truth of the story went to the grave with the remaining son. _

_It's thought that the dragons may one day return to resume their battle, but only when and if new heroes are born to accompany them..."_

I stared at the page. I blinked once. Twice, trying to understand fully what I had just read. All I could come up with was… _Is Cheren mocking me?!_

I scanned over the page again. What… what was the meaning of this? A flash of anger rushed over me, causing me to yank out the folded note from my pocket and angrily read it over again:

_"Mina, I trust this will help you to realize once again who you really are. I have faith that the simple, responsible, emotional girl who I've had as friend for eleven years will resurface and push the demon you claim yourself to be back within. Find this book, and I hope you will be well."_

All that was underneath that was the call number for the book. I threw the note down, feeling my face grow hot. _The demon…?! I was just being myself, speaking my mind, my full mind, for once! Can't you just understand?! _I screamed on the inside, body shaking.

If there was some deep, meaningful lesson to this all, I was certainly missing it. I've never been a deep person… It's just never been me. Reading between the lines… if that was what Cheren was looking for, then it sucks to say I failed him.

_I've failed him…._

_I've failed him… I've failed Bianca…_

_My friends… _they had tried to get me back, but which me did they want back? I blew up in Bianca's face and now I was here silently cursing out Cheren for sending me on a field-trip to go read something I didn't even fully comprehend. _All I'm getting from this is… truth reigns supreme. Truth saved the world. Truth is always right. So… where does that leave me? The girl who decided to break her ties for the sake of herself?_

Ignoring the truth was always my best defense mechanism. But… I was reading it now, camouflaged in black print, that truth is always the best way. Truth had never served me well though… so what did that mean for me? _My truths… of my actions… is that what Cheren's trying to show me? It said the brothers gained the legendary trust with mutual respect… which is something I lack. Is that the true reasoning behind asking me read this?_

I felt the ball in my pocket wiggle again, rocking back in forth in an effort to find some way to release itself. Giving a sour sigh, I plucked it from my pocket, unzipping the top of my bag, about to put it in, when something caught my eye. It was… the flower I had found on my chest after I had woken up from my nap that first day of my journey. I switched the ball in my grasp to my other hand, gingerly lifting the dried up flower into the air. Its royal purple petals had wilted, now slightly crispy to the touch; I pulled my hand away for fear I would crush the shrunken flower in my grasp. The pollen-tipped stamens had flattened to the inside of the flower, only slightly as green as they used to be. I set the pokeball in my other hand down, cradling the dying flower in the palms of my hands. Finding it that first day… I had originally thought it to be some accident or slight of the wind, but now I was absolutely sure it had been from Thorn. _Thorn… you confided in me and I let you down. _

There was a sharp clicking sound as the pokeball on the ground resumed writhing back in forth in an effort to get out, hitting the book shelf behind me and startling me from my thoughts. I set the gifted flower carefully on my lap, this time picking up the pokeball and holding it in front of my face, palms facing towards me as I cupped the ball. Echoed words from days long ago filtered through my ears:

_"I'm a Pokémon trainer too, but I can't help wondering… are Pokémon really happy that way?"_

_"__It's a lot more than just feeding and bathing them, you have to love them and trust them! And they have to know it!"_

_"You need to make up your own mind before you start making decisions for others, because you have a whole lot more to worry about now."_

"Well, what do you think of your caretaker now…" I smiled sadly into my reflection of the ball. "What do you think of your overly-emotional, shallow trainer? Sometimes I wish… that I wasn't able to hear the kind words that you say, because I know they hurt so much more when I double-cross them and I know it. But that…" I let my head fall backwards, hitting the shelf behind me with a thunk that rattled my brains and made my head throb. "But that… would still be running away from the truth." I pressed the button on the front of the ball, finally releasing the antsy Pokémon within.

"So, you've seen what I've been reduced to. It's not pretty, is it…?" I refused to look at him, though all he seemed to want to do was look at me. I felt his warm brown eyes burning straight into me, however he kept his distance, making no sound except for the deep child-like noises of his breathing.

_"Who you are… is who you are. I will never stop respecting you for that." _Eevee said firmly, inhaling confident air though un-bloodied airways.

I sniffed. "You always say that…. But it means nothing if… if… if you're not happy." I paused for a moment, looking back into the pages of the worn history book. _Was the dragon-type happy when it had to become two halves of its true self to conform to the humans it served? Was it happy to have to destroy the region it helped rejuvenate because it was told to? No amount of respect could ever overshadow the true feelings of happiness. _

"Are you happy with me?"

Eevee thought for a moment, relaxing his stiff sitting position into a more slumped one, sinking down to the ground on all fours, almost like he was contemplating that they were going to be there for a while. I wasn't sure if this prolonged silence was an indication he had picked up on the raging uneasiness that was causing another hard lump to form in my throat or not; my heart pounded slowly in my chest, aching for him to answer, aching for the truth for once, instead of a fabricated lie for the sake of feeling better. When he spoke, he caught me off guard _"You said you were running away from the truth… but how can you say that when you're asking the question that is on your mind, and looking an honest answer?"_

I was shaken, sort of surprised at his negating my question with a question of his own. But no matter how emotionally worn and exhausted I felt, I wasn't going to give until I had his straight answer. "You didn't answer me. I want… I want to know if you're really happy being with me or… if I should just let you go and liberate you from my burdens like everyone probably thinks I should."

Eevee was stunned silent. If the first statement hadn't caught him off guard, then I'm pretty damn sure this one did. He looked at me with wide eyes; of fright or perhaps sadness or even just plain surprise, I'm not sure. He sat, simply staring at me. I sat simply staring at him. Inside, every ounce of myself was telling me to back way, to give up and let it be as you think it is to be. I shut down every alarm bell ringing within my soul; I wanted the truth for once, and no matter how much it might've actually scared me to think about what the truth might mean, I knew I had to finally face the consequences of my actions and hear for once what other people were saying.

Eevee finally spoke. _"I see now. I truly see. You fear the truth… as I fear nothingness."_

I was dumbstruck. "What? What is that supposed to mean?"

Eevee sighed. _"I have a very relaxed personality. I can get along with most anyone. I'm quite passive, and I don't really dislike anyone. I grew up in a happy home with three brothers, and when we were old enough to have trainers, we were mashed together with a few other Eevee litters to form the troup that we were at Mike's house. I had friends. I was happy. Life was simple. But…" _Eevee's head had started to droop, his ears losing their happy bounce to flop over against his scruffy head. _"But it all felt… hollow. I mean, I'm just someone anybody can count on. I'm just somebody who will be everybody's friend. I'll never double-cross you for petty reasons and I'll never intentionally try to hurt you. But because of that… I'm just empty air. A waste of space." _Eevee was smiling despite his heart-wrenching words. His smile was sad, barely visible through the tuffy cream color around his neck. I could tell this had sat for a while, breeding more and more pain until it consumed his very being. Eevee continued _"I'm forgettable. I'm unnecessary. I'm just…. Nothingness."_

I didn't even spare the time to think about what he had said before bursting out "Cut it out! You can't be so hard on yourself! You're not allowed to think that bad of yourself, you hear me?! I, as your owner, command it!"

Eevee just shook his head _"I'm not allowed to express my opinions as you are allowed to your own? How can I sit here and let yourself bash in your ego for the sake of your own truths? Isn't the truth of one's world, the whole truth, comprised of the one's in it? In my world, I am forgettable. No one is likely to remember me after I'm gone. And I've just came to accept it, no matter how much I actually fear that possibility."_

I wanted to cry out some nonsense again, but I actually calmed myself enough to actually think about this tiny creature's words. _He fears what things just are…. as I fear the truth because of the pain it unknowingly brings. But… if your world is everyone's truth's mashed into one, how am I not part of your world? _

"I guess we all have harsh opinions about ourselves, whether it's because of our actions in the past or the way we act in the present. What I know about myself may be nothing more than the conflicting opinions I've always received, but I can find some truth in their words. I am rash. I am emotional. I am protective. I'm not very good with deep feelings or meanings or concepts that stretch wider than my own small world. I've always lied to myself just so I'd feel better about my situation. I don't know how to handle or understand my own emotions or the ones of others." I paused. "But… but if anything you said about others' opinions being part of your own truth as well, then I have no choice but to accept them. No matter how painful it is, I must accept that my world's not as perfect as I wish it was, and its never going to be. And you need to realize that too, Eevee." I felt a blush rising to my cheeks, but I had to keep going. I reached my hand forward and lifted up Eevee's chin with two fingers, raising his gaze to meet mine. "However small you think your world may be, the people comprised in it know that you mean more to them than you might think. You have taught me so much these past few days. You… have made me take another look at both myself and my world. You reminded me how important trust and the small stuff truly is. That you can't just be passive to the problems with the feelings you're experiencing. And now, after all of that, you sit here in front of me with the balls to say that no one will remember you after you're gone? After all of this you've made me realize…. you dare say that I'm not part of your world?" I took this moment to laugh, causing Eevee to flinch in surprise. "Even if you're not happy with me, that doesn't mean you can say you never got to know me! Hell, I'd say you know me pretty well just about now! And I can say honestly that I will never forget the kind words you've given to me and the simple lessons you've made me learn, about both myself and the world around me. So please, take that and add it to your truth, and stop being so hard on yourself!" I smiled again, taking my hand from his chin and ruffling his head. I half expected his chin to fall back to his chest, but his neck stood firm, eyes still trained on me.

_"I…I realize now…" _he said, his voice betraying nothing that was on his mind. A slow smile broke out on his face, starting small and spreading slowly to encompass his entire countenance. _"I don't think your truly running away anymore, and I think I should stop acting blind to those around me. I think I have an answer to your question. I think that despite all the trials we have had, and all the trials we will have, I think I can learn more from you as we go. I can say yes, that I am happy with you."_

I simply shook my head, focusing on this first statement more than the heart racing answer he had just given me. "No, I'll never stop running. As long as my past is what it is, I'd rather just keep running from truth. I think I'm just happier living in the world I've created now, creating a new world of people and friends who will never truly understand my past because I'd rather just chase a new world rather than fix the one I'm in. I'm going to continue to follow my ideals, no matter what road it takes me down, because I know the truths I'll actually hold onto will guide my way to happiness." I reached forward, rubbing Eevee's ears gently, as to not break them should this all be some sick, happy dream. "And… Thank you. I'm really relieved that you say you're happy. I… I" in one quick motion, I scooped up Eevee into my arms, pushing my nose into his fur and inhaling his Pokémon-scent. "I don't like to hafta say goodbye."

Eevee didn't squirm. Eevee didn't fight. Like that night two nights ago, he just relaxed against my chest and let me hug him. I held him close; so close that if it really was a dream, I wouldn't be able to see him fade away if the dream ever ended. To my relief he stayed whole, grasping onto me with all his might as I hugged him. I felt a sudden surge of energy within me; the power of acceptance was overwhelming. I had fixed one thing already, and maybe it was time to fix another.

"Eevee… I have another question for you."

Eevee moved his head sideways so that he could speak directly to me instead of my vest. _"And what is that?"_

I gathered up every ounce of my courage, feeling the new bond between us give me the strength to ask him "Can we battle Lenora again? Right here and now? Just the two of us?"

Eevee looked at me startled. He put a paw on my chest to elevate him enough to stare back quizzically into my eyes. _"Really? Do you think we can? I mean…." _He stopped, took a breath, and started again _"Do you think I can do it?"_I broke his gaze to do a quick look around our area; _yeah, exactly like I thought. _I gently pulled him off of me, setting him on all fours on the ground, and pushed myself to a standing. I wandered in a few circles around the book cases, getting strange looks from Eevee as I moseyed about the library. Finally, I found what I was looking for; I reached up and plucked the vivid orange hard back book from its home between the ancient encyclopedias that also inhabited the shelf. I speed-walked back to Eevee, tossing the book at his feet.

Eevee's face was blank with confusion, but remembrance registered on his face as he began to flip through the pages. He took a big chunk of the book in his teeth, flipping the pages all at once to reveal the back cover and the light-switch style flip switch.

I didn't have to say it, but I knew Eevee knew it was his choice. He could just close the book and we could walk out now; he could flip the switch and we could go down the stairs and face what we were going to face; he could throw the book back in my face. I leaned against the book shelf behind me, eyes on the top of his scruffy head as he made his decision.

To my amazement, he didn't hesitate like he had earlier; he pulled the switch down on the panel, flipping it on. The ground began to rumble again, the floor below a book shelf two rows away starting to shift to reveal the opening underneath the floorboards. I watched mesmerized as the hidden passage slowly revealed itself, the books on all the surrounding shelves vibrating with the mini-earthquake that was ensuing.

_"I think we're strong enough now to handle it. Right?"_

Eevee's voice called me back from staring at the moving furniture. I turned my head to look down at him, a little one foot, fifteen-pound wonderful life my uncle had entrusted me with; I guess this was the moment I realized how much he meant to me; Thorn too. Even though the passage to our next battle was waiting for me, I took that moment to stoop down to Eevee's height and say something I should have two nights ago. "You said you trust me to always take care of you, but I never said anything about it in return. I can promise you right now that I'll always care for you, and I'll never actually throw you out a window like I always threaten Thorn with." I smiled.

The thing about Thorn and windows got Eevee to snicker a bit _"What are we waiting for? Let's go! We'll worry about all of that later!"_ he took off running for the hole; I was still for a moment, amazed at the deepness of my own words, before digging my heels into the ground to catch up with him. He waited for at the threshold of the hole, eyes flickering happily, tail flicking back and forth. Even when I caught up with him, he didn't start the decent down the stairs. He was waiting for me to take the first step into a new life for all of us.

I took one last step, closing the distance between me and the hole, coming to stand at Eevee's side. Looking at the passage again, I felt almost humble. Last time I was here I had torn apart the library, caused a ruckus with Clyde, and then fought my way down this hole, which lead to this whole mess in the first place. Running up the stairs in the lobby, I had told Hawes that I didn't need luck, that I had skill, but that skill was only in making mistakes and acting like a bitch. _But those times are over; let's get the show on the road._ I let out a great battle cry, taking a leaping jump into the stair well and taking the steps two at a time.

"LLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOORR RRRRRR-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

**OOOOOOOOO**

Cheren was trying his hardest to feign indifference to the antagonistic glares he was receiving from the sour green Pokémon perched on his shoulder, but was failing miserably. He kept glancing out of the corner of his eye, uneasiness rising up in his chest each time he saw his shoulder-occupier's black slitted pupils surrounded by the sea of red that was his eyes. At first Cheren simply thought that this was just how the creature acted on a normal basis, but when he caught the slight smile growing on his companion's face each time they made contact, he reached the vein-bursting conclusion he was being messed with; _he's enjoying this, the little monster._

The thing on his shoulder smiled a bit wider, seeming happy that his little joke was finally noticed. He replied to Cheren's popping vein with a short spiel of undecipherable Pokémon speak. Cheren grasped at the bridge of his nose, trying to keep his cool.

The uneasiness within him was fast being replaced by blunt irritation; he was much better than this: toting around the mental-case in the making partner of his best friend. They had been going at it since last night, and Cheren was sure the detestation betwixt the two of them had only grown since them. Trying to give off a neutral appearance, he decided to tackle this beast head-on; he addressed the thing sitting on his shoulder.

"That is no way to be behaving around the person who saved you running around on your own all night and getting procured by a Pokémon catcher. The least you can show is a bit of respect, or at least be a bit more enjoyable to be around." Cheren shook his finger sternly in his companion's face "Staring is rude, you know. And I know that's its likely because you're upset at the world right now, but that's no good excuse to act like a complete ruffian. Why, you should-"

His response was to bite down on Cheren's wagging finger. Hard. Cheren recoiled in horror as the two perfect fang-shaped indents in his hand began to gush crimson; this plain show of disrespect was not going to just slip by, oh no. Blind anger broke through the façade he had tried to put up in order to deal with this…. Thing. He held himself down though, taking time to slow his normally hurried-with-purpose walk enough to allow him to grind the heels of his freshly-polished brown leather boots into the ground below him, grounding him once again to reality.

He would never actually lash out at a Pokémon; he whipped his gushing finger on his shirt, sticking it in his mouth while his other hand searched through his alphabetically-by-name arranged pouch. He found the compact see-through kit and calming flipped through the type-grouped adhesive bandages until he found the bandage he was looking for; _ah, medium-sized flexible fabric with a non-stick quilted pad. Right behind the small-sized ones. _He removed his finger from his mouth, whipping it on his shirt to dry it, and busied himself with applying it.

"You never did explain why you were out there, alone, I mean. Or why you were sitting in a pile of sugar-free cherry pie filling, surrounded by shoes, which I might add weren't even pairs, just random mismatched shoes, eating bread from a can with a spork."

The Snivy hit him upside the head with his huge leafy tail, uttering some more nonsensical Pokémon speak, ending with a firm smirk on his pointy face. Though Cheren could not understand him, he had the uncanny feeling he was being made fun of. He sighed, rubbing the back of his head; _how does Mina put up with this blasphemy?!_

Snivy snorted looking at Cheren's reaction, flicking his nose with one of his thorn-sharp claws. He spouted something else off at Cheren, sitting back to watch for his next reaction.

_Ohhhh, you…. _Cheren started to muse manically to himself. He couldn't remember this creature's name, but at this rate, it might not even matter; he was half tempted to pluck the thing of his shoulder and toss it back into the gutter, where at least it could insult the entire world instead of just pushing Cheren's buttons. But for the sake of Mina, he decided he could play along with the cretin.

"You may be making fun of me, but I'm still the bigger threat here, you gutter snipe." Cheren glowered at the Pokémon, seeing if him standing up for himself would be enough to drive away this thing like so many other bullies he had faced before.

It seemed unfazed though, flicking it's pointy tongue and spitting something else at Cheren. He then reached up and flicked the single strand of Cheren's hair that refused to stay put no matter how much hair gel he used for good measure.

_"Sni."_

Cheren's hands flew to his head, going on to the defensive "Whats the matter with my hair?! I think it looks perfectly adequate for public matters!" From the look on Snivy's face, Cheren's outburst was just rolling off the top like water off a Ducklett's feathers. "Well at least I have hair."

Cheren though he might have won this round, but his hopes were crushed quickly with a slap in the face from his becoming-unwanted cohort's tail. "GAAHH, UH! It smells like you've bathed in cherries and poor people!" he sputtered, pushing the tail away, trying to avoid the edges for fear of getting a cut from its razor-sharp edge.

_"Snivy. Sni… Snivy-vy sni. Snnnnnnnnnniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" _Snivy drug out the last syllable so far Cheren was positive he was being mocked now. Snivy smirked all the while, seeming so pleased at getting such a rise out of his supposed 'care-taker'. Cheren's fuel for handling this thing without violence was starting to run thin; being made fun of without even knowing what they were really saying was definitely a quick way to get on the losing side of an argument.

"Ohhhhh, you vile, repugnant, devious, awful, fiend, creature….. thing you-"

There was a loud _crash! Boom! Bang! _That caught the duo attention. Cheren broke off mid-insult, twisting his elegantly long neck in the sound of the noise. The revoltingly familiar noise of chainmail and whining passed his ears and he immediately knew what they were dealing with; Snivy seemed to reach the same conclusion. _Team Plasma?! Why here? _But then again, why the dream yard in the first place? They had some strange intentions for everything, and his would be no exception. He had walked around all day in search of his annoyingly freaky travel companion's trainer, with no avail, without even the slightest hint of anything being amiss. And now the thing he loathes most has fallen right into his lap; _Well, it looks like today's actually going to have some redeeming qualities._

Cheren ducked behind a flower shop's display stand, burying his head in the only bouquet of flowers it possibly could blend into, which happened to be a bunch of foul-smelling marigold-looking things that seemed to be on the verge of imploding in upon themselves. Cheren wrinkled up his nose in disgust, his face twisting into a sour frown upon inhaling the sickening scent of dead-body flowers. Thorn had just plastered himself up against a fern, blending easily into the flora, his haughtily gleaming eyes the only giveaway he was nothing more than an innocent fern. Together, they watched the bumbling grunts meander past the stand, not giving it a second look. Cheren could hardly hear what they were saying between the flowers bunched around his head and his brain screaming about how unsanitary dead-body smelling flowers must be, but he did catch a few snippets of their conversation.

"I need…. Bathroom…."

"You drink too much lemonade…. Waitress"

"Hot… waitress… money…."

"Museum…. Stupid… Ghetesis…"

At the mention of their leaders' name, the three goofing grunts fell silent, only the mentioning of how bad Ghetesis's attitude towards goofing off was just like trying to handle him in the morning before he's had his coffee. The grunts all shared a good laugh at their leader's expense, but started to speed-walk their way down their street, minds once again focused on the task at hand.

Cheren pushed around the bouquet of sickly-smelling flowers to see Snivy again "Hey did you hear that? Sounds like they're going to be messing around with the museum!" Snivy's response was a single syllable in an irkingly flat tone, seeming like the Pokémon version of the standard "You don't say" but Cheren continued. "We have to stop them!"

Snivy huffed in response, peering his head out from behind the fern, craning his head to catch a glimpse of the moving grunts. Cheren caught only a fleeting look of their backs as fear rose up in him; _at this rate, they'll be gone by the time I get Tepig out and launch an attack! _He glanced over a Snivy; he had to try something.

"Snivy! Use Vine Whip and catch them before they escape!" Cheren whispered hurriedly across the flower stand, urgency echoing in his voice.

Snivy started to reply, but something else caught his attention. He whipped around, nose to the air. He screeched a single _"Snivy!" _before taking off in the opposite direction from the grunts, leaving a trails of fern leaves in his wake.

Cheren was stunned, unsure whether that was a simple "F*** you, four-eyes" or something else. Still he knew he had to go after the stupid crazy thing; he pulled his head from the flowers, tripping over a sunflower watering can and toppling over the display stand, and took off for the receding form of Mina's Snivy. He dared risk a glance over his shoulder to see if the grunts were still visible, but they had disappeared around a corner; there was no going back now.

"Hey! Dummy! Where are you going?! Hey! Are you listening to me, you vile, repugnant, devious, awful, fiend, creature, beast, dunce, idiotic, scheming thing you…. Thing!"

* * *

**Hello again to all my friends, together we can read some Pokemon fanfics.**

**Thorn-"Skrillex, really? You sad sad sack of an author"**

**Shuttap. Anyways, I really keep trying my hardest with the whole 'feelings' stuff that goes on -.- I really want these lessons to mean something, and not just come off as cheese-tastic, you'know? I'm trying to build these connections between this characters and try to make them seem real... Oh well, if it isn't working, just let me know and I'll try to fix it.**

**So how'd yall like the whole 'Cheren's POV plus some Thorn' part?! I've been dying to do some of that at some point, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so :D Cheren's usually pretty composed, but then again Thorn's good at getting a rise out of anyone XD **

**Bye-bye! Heads up, skeleton decapitation, awesome-ness level of someone increasing, and bridge jumping are ahead! You have been warned...0-0**

**P.S Does anybody have any idea what might have transpired between Mina and Rekikio -.-' I just wanna hear what you all are thinkin'(Of course I know what happened, but I'm interested all the same :P) PM or Review tellin me what you think!**


	22. Chapter 21: Off With Its Head!

Chapter 21: Off With its Head!

"Well then, I wasn't sure if I was going to see you around here again or not." Lenora raised a bushy teal-blue eyebrow, her face a mask of complete neutralness. She was working from behind her massive desk, fancy fountain pen clutched between her calloused dark chocolate fingers, with a fine scattering of beige and cream-colored papers creating a semi-circle around her on the desk. Her teal eyes had snapped up the moment the rubber soles of my boots had landed with a firm smack on her tiled floor, the sound echoing around us.

I felt Eevee curl himself around my ankles, and it filled me with confidence; I placed my fists firmly on my hips, tipping my head up so I could look Lenora directly in her eyes. "Lenora! I challenge you to another gym battle. Right now!"

Lenora rested her head on her hand still poised to sign something with her pen. "Is that so? If you remember last time, I wasn't too keen on playing with you anymore. Why should I waste my time with an inconsiderate trainer again?" her tone hadn't changed, but her words were bitter.

Her harsh words didn't faze me though; I wasn't about to let her deter me. I've come to damn far emotionally in these past twenty minutes to back down like a coward now. I was going to prove to Eevee he made the right choice to trust me, no matter what. It might have been a selfish act to take him to the Pokémon center to be healed before coming here just so that I could shower and become at least semi-presentable, but now I was happy I had did it. Nothing would have been worse than to come all this way to show Lenora I still hadn't gotten his nose bleed checked out. Nope, I wasn't going to back down.

"I'm not leaving until you battle me. So, you can have whatever crappy feelings towards me you want, but you're still a gym leader. Act like one and battle me!"

Lenora shook her head sadly, her huge afro shaking with her."With an attitude like that, it shows me nothing has changed. While it is true I am a gym leader and it's my duty to take on challengers, it doesn't mean I'm not allowed to have my own opinions about who I battle. And you" she skewered into me with her razor-sharp teal gaze "you seem like a spoiled child who still doesn't know the ways of the world. I don't think either of us would gain anything from a battle with one another." She firmly crossed her arms, leaning back in her stiff leather seat, eyes narrowed to discerning points.

I gritted my teeth. It hurt to be called a spoiled child. No, it SUCKED to be called a spoiled child. But it's just a truth I'll have to take. I shook myself, feeling Eevee's warmth around my ankle giving me back my strength to fight this stubborn woman. "Yeah, I can agree with that. I'm spoiled and I'm still not completely sure how to handle myself or how to take care of Pokémon, but you were that way once too! But I've changed since my last battle. Eevee helped change me. So shut up and battle me. I want to prove myself." Ok, so maybe it wasn't the best strategy to point out flaws in a gym leader, but it was worth a try.

It seemed to hit home though; there was the squeaking of chair legs across tiled floor, and Lenora rose up to stand. She still had a grimace on her face, but her eyes seemed to gleam a little brighter with…. intrigue. She walked around to the front of her desk, massive hips swaying as she walked; she came to stand in front of it, staring me down with her icy green-blue eyes. "So, you think you can take me with just one Pokémon? I know your other one ran off on you last night. You haven't found him yet, but you're willing to risk your own pride with this Pokémon? The one you almost forced to battle last time?"

"I am. I think…" I looked down at Eevee, who was smiling determined. "I think we've reached an understanding." I crouched down, rubbing his head. Eevee smiled happily at my touch, eyes still on Lenora. He rubbed his head against my hand, never breaking eye contact.

The big black woman sighed. "Well I guess I'll bend the rules this once about needing two Pokémon. You!" she pointed at me. "Give me a good battle any maybe I'll change what I think of you because of it!"

I stood up, a smile breaking out on my face. "My names Mina, not 'you', and this is Eevee. I'm from Nuvema town and we're ready to kick your butt!"

Lenora raised her eyebrow again, a twinge of a smile pulling at her lips. "Then I'm ready too. Herdier, I need you!" she threw the red and white ball into the air, the stunning flash of blue light blinding us for a moment before touching down and forming her scruffy-faced Herdier. It growled sharply, eyes burning for a battle.

"Eevee, Quick Attack. Sweep it off its feet!"

_"Will do!" _Eevee laughed before shooting off in a flash of striking silver light. He mowed over Herdier before it could even shudder. Herdier went tumbling, rolling head over feet and finally running smack into Lenora's desk. I suddenly realized in all the chaos that Lenora hadn't flung the lever that opened up the battle field, leaving the room at its normal slightly-larger-than-the-average size. I furrowed my brow; _is this some extra kind of test? _Eevee trotted back to my side and the battle resumed, so I didn't have much time to ponder it.

"Herdier, dust yourself off and use Take Down!"

Herdier was up in an instant, dashing across the field, knocking Eevee back and into me. Eevee tumbled backwards, tumbling painfully on his side and slamming into my knees, causing us to veer backwards. I fell back on my butt, stirring up a cloud of dust, Eevee in my lap. Eevee was tangled up in my legs, huffing a bit; I pulled him back up, eyeing Herdier as it half-limped back over to Lenora. _It seems to have sustained some damage from that attack too… _I set Eevee back on his feet, smiling at him encouragingly. "Come on, your scrappier than that. Use Quick Attack! Then Bite!"

Eevee gave me a smile, shooting off across the field again. Herdier was ready for it though. "Use Retaliate!" Lenora commanded, reverting to her fail-safe strategy.

A tight feeling of worry shot through me like an arrow. I couldn't take any unnecessary risks because Eevee was my only Pokémon. When he was down, we were done. Cheren's instruction ran through my head again; _if its power doubles when its attacked when its used, can the attack be called off and it will then lose its power? Well it's worth a try. _"Eevee! Stop the attack! If you can't dodge it, let it hit you! Just stop the attack!"

_"Huh?!" _Eevee gaped at me over his shoulder, still speeding forward, but collided with the oncoming form of Herdier, screeching him to a stop. He fell over to his belly, staring up with wide eyes at Herdier above him.

"Do it!" Lenora cried.

_"RAAAAAAAAAARRF!" _Herdier roared out, rearing up to gouge its softball-sized paws into Eevee back. Eevee sucked in a breath, rolling out of the way just in time to catch a face full of dust sent off from the attack. He rose to his shaky feet, one paw working furiously to get the dust out of his eyes; he had avoided the devastating attack.

"Come on Eevee, you can do it! Use Bite while its up close!" Eevee gave himself one more good shake before launching himself at Herdier again. He clamped his teeth around the scruff at the back its neck, biting down hard as Herdier began to shake furiously in an effort to get it off.

"Herdier, get it off of you and use Retaliate!" Herdier began to shake himself even harder, rocking back and forth at a dizzying pace like one of those kiddy rides at supermarkets on speed. Struck by the moment, another memory ran by my eyes; battling with N, Eevee had done a similar thing, and when Pidove had started to attack again then, we drove it into the ground and the battle was over. I smiled. We could do that again.

"Eevee, don't let go! Use Quick Attack while holding onto and drive it into the ground!"

Teeth still around Herdier's neck, Eevee turned around and gave me a look of uncertainty. I shouted encouragingly "Come on Eevee, stop doubting yourself! You can do it!"

This time when he turned around, he gave me a small nod. He shot himself off the ground, doing a complete flip over Herdier's back and landing on his hind legs, the force from his flip propelling Herdier over his head and into the ground in front of him.

"Ok now Eevee, finish it with Tackle!"

Eevee ran full force into the downed Herdier, conking it right over the head with his own hard skull. When the dust cleared, Eevee was left standing above Herdier's crumpled form. Herdier was moaning slightly, eyes shut tight; he had fainted.

"All right Eevee! Great job, come back ov-" I started, but stopped when I watched what Eevee was doing. Eevee was helping the defeated Herdier back to its feet, giving it a modest smile before jogging back to me and sitting at my feet. I look down at him, seeing a small, pleased smile on his face. I shrugged it off, crouching down to rub his head. "Good job. You're a good winner." A small blush rose on Eevee's cheeks at the complement.

"Hmm, well done, you won." Lenora said mildly, returning Herdier back to its pokeball. "With that, I'm beginning to see what kind of Pokémon you're raising, but I'm not seeing anything different in you from the time we battled last. You still have not convinced me of anything."

I gritted my teeth, feeling little flakey bits rub off in my mouth, but I kept my mouth shut on the subject. I gave Eevee's head another stroke before giving him a little push back onto the field. Lenora began fussing with her other pokeball across the field, reminding me this was more than just a simple battle of conflicting emotions. I watched her carefully, ready for her Watchog.

"Scoutland, let's go!"

"WHAT?!" I shrieked. Underneath me Eevee still was composed, though a thoroughly surprised look was now plastered to his face. _She has another Pokémon other than Watchog?!_

Lenora shook her hair back, crossing her arms as her newly released Scoutland stared down at us intimidatingly. "Just as there is adventure in the indefiniteness of life, the indefiniteness of knowing your opponent's move is another form of adventure. You came here asking for the challenge of changing my mind," Lenora placed a hand on her hip, cocking it out to the left "and I'm going to present you with one. Now Scoutland, Rock Tomb!"

Scoutland inched forward on its front legs, doing a handstand, using its back legs to kick up a few large chunks of the floor, doing a quick spin and kicking them off across the field. Eevee got out a strangled _"Eev-!" _before he was bombarded by the hazardous chunks of floor; they smacked into him, one after another, pinning him to the ground with their weight and restricting his movement.

"Eevee…!"

"Rock Tomb is a special move that damages the victim and restricts their movement, cutting their speed drastically. This helps when Scoutland's opponents are smaller and quicker than it. Scoutland's immense power and muscle makes it a bit slower than other Pokémon, but this move makes it a bit easier on her, so now she had both power and speed on her side. So tell me, Miss. Mina of Nuvema town, how are you going to prove that you have changed enough to think your way out of this?" Lenora raised a playful eyebrow, looking a bit like devious Purrloin playing with some poor Minccino before eating it. And here I was: the Minccino.

I gritted my teeth, watching Eevee writhe under the crushing weight of the tiled chunks. At this rate, Eevee wasn't going to be able to do much of anything before we could prove anything to Lenora. _With those chunks crushing him… we don't have many options for movement…. _I wracked my head for any ideas.

"Scoutland, use Wild Charge!" Scoutland let out a mighty roar, its fur becoming covered in crackling electricity. It began to glow a dangerous electric yellow, its whole body covered in jolting static. It roared again, taking off down the battle field, running straight into Eevee, sending him and the rocks flying into the air. I could smell the sickening aroma of burnt hair.

_"Eeve?!" _Eevee shrieked, brown eyes liquid with fright as he went flying through the air. Time seemed almost suspended within itself, Eevee flying dream-like through the air, the rocks, scattered upon impact, spraying like water everywhere, and Scoutland, Scoutland still coming, jumping slow-mo into the air. I watched the scene, completely transfixed in such a way I could do nothing except watch the disaster-in-the-making.

"Ice Fang!"

Time went super fast now, like the fast-forward button had been cranked up to max. Scoutland was on Eevee in an instant, fangs gleaming with icy energy, and then she chomped on him, blue energy transferring over to him. Eevee was shrieking again, his body becoming encrusted with dangerously sparkly ice. The ice formed excruciatingly fast, first climbing up his forelegs, then encasing is entire body, the weight of the ice dragging his body to the ground. He landed in a defeated icy chunk, everything but parts of his forelegs and his face covered in the dangerous ice. He gave a wheezing cough, gritting his teeth at the cold. Scoutland landed back on the field on Lenora's side, eyes twinkling assuredly.

"This… this is unfair!" I shrieked, sounding completely like the spoiled child Lenora said I was. "Eevee isn't strong enough to handle this! This is completely unfair!" This was not the situation I had expected, and I was really pissed off.

Lenora's face gave away nothing. "I'm giving you the chance to prove yourself to me again. You can't tell me that our first encounter went exactly well. My love of Pokémon comes above all else, and anybody seen doing any less makes me upset. Pokémon are our friends and allies, and should be treated as such. You say you've changed, but just because your Pokémon have gotten stronger, doesn't mean you have."

_"I'm sorry, I wasn't strong enough. There's no way I can win… she's stronger than me" _Eevee's shallow voice came from the ice block, utter defeat echoing in his words.

"Shut up! Get up! I know you can!"

"You're not stronger at all. You're still trying to force something to do something it doesn't want to do. At least have some respect for yourself and your Pokémon and bow out gracefully." Lenora said firmly, eyes on Eevee again.

I gritted my teeth again, my hands clenching into angry fists, my anger full on raging now. "Shut up! Why do you hate me?! We've grown stronger, and you just won't let us prove it!"

"Hate has nothing to do with this."

But I did feel like she hated me. I felt she hated me for the human mistake of ignorance. "Do you hate me because of the mistake I made last time? I'm sorry; I've owned up to it and I know it was wrong. I was just doing what I felt was right, and I'm sick and tired of everyone telling me I'm wrong because I'd rather do things my way than anybody else's! I'm tired of being wrong, I'm tired of being counted out, and I'm tired of people who act like jerks because other human beings make mistakes!" I was getting so fired up, angry tears prickled at the edges of my eyes; I had grown more and more hunched over, forcibly yelling more into the ground than Lenora. "I won't love anything less than strong, because that means I'm weak too, and I know Eevee's strong enough to get through all these stupid trials you're putting us through!" I directed my yelling to Eevee "You hear me?! I know you're strong, cos' you just showed that to me in the library! Prove it again! I believe in you and I'm ready for you to get up and start believing in yourself!"

_"I…. can't…. it's cold…. I'm nothing…."_

"That's exactly what nothingness would say! Are you nothing? No! No you're not, so get up and be the best I know you can be because you're not nothing to me!" I screamed, completely so overcome with emotion I forgot Lenora and Scoutland were even there. I screamed so hard my lungs and throat began to ache and I could hear my screams echoing.

Lenora did nothing. Lenora said nothing.

Scoutland did nothing, only pricking up its ears at the resounding echos.

I did nothing else. I said nothing else.

Eevee was the one to broke the silence.

_"I guess I have no choice but to add that to my truth…" _Eevee said quietly, a creaky smile starting to bloom on his face. _"And because of that…." _He began to glow in a soft pink light, his smile growing wider. _"I'll return everything I've got back to you!" _Eevee shot out of his icy encasing, still surrounded in the pink light. The glass shattered effortlessly with his strange power he was possessing, falling like shards of frail glass to the ground, completely unlike the rock-hard cold chunks they were earlier. Eevee shot forward and rammed right into Scoutland and, to my utter shock, sent the massive beast tumbling across the floor. Eevee landed perfectly on his feet, smile on his face wide and determined.

Scoutland on the ground a few feet away moaned loudly, growling as it pulled itself back up to its feet. "That was… was that…?" Lenora began to murmur surprised, caught completely by surprise at this sudden turn of events. _Her and me both._

"Eevee!" I cried, staring at his turned back, eyes as wide as saucers. _What the hell is happening?!_

When he turned, he was still smiling ear to ear, the pink glow having receded to the depths of his eyes. _"That was…"_

"Return, a move that grows more powerful the more the user likes its trainer" Lenora and Eevee described together, both completely unknowingly in sync.

", with a max power of 102 at its highest level" Lenora finished, the researcher in her filling us in with all the data. Her eyes had gone back to normal, but she still seemed pretty shocked, her face still stone still.

I looked at Eevee, the adoration I was feeling for him very evident on my face. "And I'd call that a maximum level Return, if I do say so myself." I grinned. Eevee smiled in return. I turned to Lenora, my conviction strong as steel, hard as a rock "If anything could prove that I've changed, please let it be this. You can hate me all you want, but you cannot overlook the bond I know I have with my Eevee." I smiled with all my might, ready to take her hate with stride.

To my surprise Lenora burst out laughing. "Well then, the realist in me can't over-look that, now can she? But we still have a battle going on, and if anything, this makes me want to challenge you even more! Scoutland, use Wild Charge!"

I laughed "I wouldn't want it any other way. Eevee, Retur-"

"LENORA! COME QUICK, IT'S A DISASTER OUT 'ERE!" Clyde suddenly came charging down into the battle field from the stair well, chest rising and falling quickly with urgency. His sunglasses were completely up, his eyes crunched with anger and shock, which transformed to confusion once they landed on me. "Booty Shorts? Whattya still doin' here?"

Lenora stormed her way across the field, stalking in her short heels right up to Clyde, the worry plain in her face. "Clyde, what happened out there?"

"Let's just go, that dopey Hawes needs you!" Clyde huffed, already half dragging her to the stairs.

Lenora cast a glance over her shoulder down at me, locking eyes with me for an instant before submitting to be yanked upstairs. "Show me, Clyde!"

"H-hey! HEY!" I yelled up at them, dashing to the foot of the stair well before leaping up the stairs two at a time. "Don't expect me to just sit around while stuffs happening! I'm coming too!" I started hopping the stairs three at a time, hearing Eevee's claws scrap the stones underneath us as he kept up with me.

Clyde and Lenora had reached the top of the stairs, Clyde looking back down to yell at me "Well, come on then, Booty Shorts! We ain't waiting fer yer slow tail to hurry it up!"

I landed on the top of the landing, dashing past him straight to the doors into the museum. _That was the only place something this urgent could be happening. _"Come on! Wasn't this an emergency?!"

**OOOOOOOOO**

"What is the meaning of this?!" Lenora screeched from the top of the stair case, eyes crunched in anger, fists on her hips. Clyde and I came up to flank her on the sides, both equally as tense as she. We all stared in horror at the commotion of interest going on down the stair case, the flurry of activity centered around the majestic dragon skeleton.

A brigade of about twelve armed and ready Team Plasma grunts had formed a triangle around the dragon bone exhibit, several with their swords drawn and faces devious with insidious intent. The apparent squadron leader took a step toward in our direction upon hearing Lenora's voice. She looked to be no more than nineteen, but she held the obvious presence of one trained to be powerful. She waved her fingers over her shoulder quickly, the focused grunts being drawn back to her; they fell in line, forming a powerful wall of chainmail behind her. She smiled up at us, her straight white teeth still capped with braces from adolescence "So, you've finally showed up, gym leader!"

"Now you wait just a moment. Enough of this fooling around! Who are you and what are you doing here?!" Lenora shouted, threateningly stomping down the stair case with all her might, her body radiating pure fury. The floor beneath my feet almost felt like it had begun to shake with her anger too, as if the building was angry as well at the horrid thought that any of its treasures might be stolen.

"Team Plasma!" I growled, skipping the stairs completely and hopping over the side of the banister, landing in a crouched animalistic position before getting up and storming over to Lenora to get up in the grunt's face as well. I sidled up to the grunt, grabbing her by the soft shirt she wore underneath her knight get-up. "What's Team Plasma after now? Why are you freaks messing with the museum?!"

The head grunt laughed at me, grabbing me around the wrist fearlessly and throwing me off with no trouble at all. I did a drunk twist, stumbling over my feet, but quickly righted myself enough to go back to Lenora's side, both of us glaring daggers at the grunt. She didn't say anything, simply signaling something else to her cronies behind her. They began to reform their triangle around the skeleton, effectively blocking it off from the rest of the museum. I felt an arrow of fear shoot through me as I began to realize what they had come here for.

"D-dear….?" Hawes squeaked, making us all notice him for the first time. He had been crowded into a corner by three more grunts, eyes locked on Lenora, his body quavering with fear. He had a yellow handkerchief clutched in his grasp, and it looked positively drenched from nervous perspiration.

"We of Team Plasma are here to claim this dragon skull in the name of Pokémon Liberation! You selfish individuals think something as special as it can just be put on display for all the world to see without any consent to who it belongs to?!" The head grunt reached out one of her long, spindly fingers to point accusingly at Lenora, drawing our attention back to her. "I know you're all aware of who this skull truly belongs too! We will stop at nothing to revive the legends, no matter who we must face down to reach our goal. We will not be oppressed any longer!"

From above, Clyde scoffed, the sound of his footsteps coming down the stairs to join us in our little standoff "You brats're outta yer minds! Get yer sorry arses outta hear b'fore we have to take some measures I'm sure 'ou punks wouldn't rather hafta deal 'wit! Scram!"

The grunt smiled, giving us a flash of her purple-banned braces. "You think we're joking. Well we'll prove to you we're serious by stealing it right in front of you! Grunts…" she looked over her should watching as half of the remaining knights pulled out their swords and assumed their positions. "Attack! Off with its head!"

"You're insane! You can't do this!" Lenora shrieked, sounding every bit as livid as she looked.

The grunt turned to us once more and smiled again, this time a very pleasant, happy-little-girl smile. "Actually, yes. Yes we can."

The grunts flew into action, leaping into the air and onto the display, waving their swords in a flurry of furious slashes. "PLAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSMMMMMAA AAAAAAAAA!" Several made contact with the vertebrae that connected the huge skull and the rest of spine; there was the crackling sound of hundred-year-old bone being split open and ,to our dismay, the skull proceeded to go plummeting off the skeleton's shoulders, being dragged into a harrowing descent to the shattering ground below.

"NO!" Lenora and Hawes cried out together, hearts ready for the crushing sound of the delicate skull being shattered all over their lobby floor; but there wasn't one.

The grunts who hadn't leaped into action had now all corralled under the rib cage of the beastly skeleton, their combined efforts easily catching the head before it could smash into the ground. With a group 'HUP!' they lifted it above their heads and started to make a stumbling mad dash for the door. They tilted and veered under the sheer weight of the heavy bones, but they managed to keep upright. The head grunt turned to us one last time to give us a little two-fingered solute and a wink, her gloved fingers clutching the purplish rounded form of a smoke ball.

"It's been fun, but now we must depar-!"

"NOPE!" I yelped, sprinting from my place at Lenora's side to take a running leap and slamming my foot into the grunt's perfect white teeth. _Those were really starting to annoy me! _I did a quick 180, checking the entire vicinity around the skeleton. All the grunts, save for the leader who was now crumbled at my feet holding onto her bloody gums, had made a dash for the door, the ones guarding Hawes having booked it as well. They were almost to the door now, and I would have no chance of catching them if they got outside. There was no time to go around. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but I hiked myself up on the skinny banister surrounding the display pavilion, getting my feet under me again and jumping through the gap in the dragon's legs. I held my breath, sticking my arms out and ducking my head as I went under.

One moment I was soaring through the legs, the next, I was being hit in the face by the flat part of a sword. I had failed to notice one more grunt lurking around the feet of the beast, and now I had been ambushed by it. My streamlined shape broke and I hit the edge of the display stand, tumbling off the edge and rolling onto the ground in front of the skeleton.

"MINA!"

_I'm fine…! _I tried to yell back to the screaming voices, but the force of impact had knocked all the air clean from my lungs. Colors flickering and pulsating like strobe lights wandered freely through my cloudy vision, making me lose my sense of my surroundsing. I wheezed painfully in an effort to gain my ability to speak again, but something else stopped my breathing. The voices weren't freaking out because of my fall, they were freaking out as the skeleton I had fallen directly under began to crumble. Without the support from the severed spine, the skeleton had started to come apart, breaking off into projectile pieces and plummeting to the floor just like its cranium had moments ago. I was up on my knees in a matter of seconds, searching frantically for an opening between the falling chunks of bone; there was none. _If I can make it to the gape in the ribs…! _I made a jump for it before realizing I wasn't going to make it, and, even if I had, I would have had to contend with the spiky bits of fragmented spine vertebrae lodged in the back of the rib cage, which were just as dangerous as any of the other pieces would be. I gritted my teeth, eyes wide with angry fright, time slowing to an aching standstill in front of my face. _I'm not going to make it!_

"MINA!"

_"Mina!"_

_I'm… not going to make it! _I curled up in a ball, bending my spine out to the brunt of the force just like we had been taught in school to handle tornados; the spine was the sturdiest part of the body; if I couldn't find my way out, it was my best chance for survival. I curled myself tighter, shutting my eyes hard and waiting for the crushing force of the skeleton to bury me.

It never came.

"Huh…? AH!" I peered out from between my arms, outright gasping when I saw what had happened. The entire skeleton had indeed collapsed, but it had been ensnared into the grasp of two elongated ivy-green vines, which were supporting its massive weight. And standing right next to my head, was Thorn, arms up and shaking in an effort to hold the vines steady despite the pressure of keeping the beastly fossil off of me.

"THORN!"

"Scoutland, give Snivy a hand!"

Scoutland swept underneath the skeleton, its tall form pressed up against the braided vine trap Thorn had put up. It grunted, giving the pieces of bone a good shove back with its shoulder, pressing further and further until it was up on its hind legs and it gave the skeleton one more good shove and it crumbled into a heap onto the pedestal it had been occupying moments ago. Thorn unwrapped his vines from around the pieces of the skeleton, retracting them back under his leafy collar with a great exhausted sigh.

"Thorn!" I cried again, the second we were out of danger, and flopping forward to hug him around the head. I embraced him in a crushing headlock of relief, squeezing onto his head hard with all my might. "Oh my god, Thorn!"

Thorn just froze under my crushing gripe, mouth half way open, his eyes crooked, one huge and the other squinted to a sliver. _"Who are you and what have you done with Mina?"_

A stampede of feet came rushing at us, surrounding us with the noise of boots heels and sneakers stamping forcefully on the ground, the sighs of relief and worrying looks accompanying them. Several hands reached forward and helped lift me to a standing, several more hands fanning over my arms and poking at my back and stomach to see if I was alright. Thorn wound himself up my leg, positioning himself precariously on my shoulder in an Indian-style sitting position. He then proceeded to smack me with all his might.

Everyone gasped. I slowly lifted my hand to my check, feeling it tingle with the hot anger from Thorn's skin. Thorn crossed his arms, glaring me through hooded eyes. _"How dare you go and almost get yourself killed when I'm not even around." _He slapped me again _"How dare you risk your well-being on a bunch of nit-wits who were going to get away anyways. Of course YOU of all people would think to jump right into the splash zone during such a crisis. I almost DIED watching you do that! Why if Cheren and I hadn't come in when we did-"_

"Cheren…?" I croaked, looking around for my friend. I didn't get the chance to find him though, as Thorn grabbed me by the head, forcing me to look into his piercing red eyes.

_"Don't you DARE do something like that again. EVER. EVER."_

"Thorrrrrrrnn…." I began to moan, feeling weepy all of a sudden.

"Mina! Oh my gosh, that was amazing! You were like a superhero, all 'WHOOOOSH' and 'ZOOOOM' and even when you fell, that was just like when the superhero has that really epic death scene, only you didn't die, and that makes it even more amazing! You were so brave and Thorn saved you, just like a knight and-!"

"Sheesh Bianca, give her a chance to breath…"

The two familiar voices made the weepy feeling start to stick. I turned my head in their direction, feeling my chest inflate when I looked at their worried faces. "B-bianca…C-cheren…?"

Bianca nodded happily in return, a happy flush coming over her cheeks. Cheren was attempting to look stoic, but now just looked relieved.

Wailing like the child I still was deep down inside, I threw myself to my knees, wrapping my arms around both of their waists and hugging them tight. What I _really _wanted to go was plant my face in the ground and grovel at their feet for forgiveness, but Bianca yanked me up to a standing so she could envelop me in a huge bear hug. I still didn't let the tears flow, but a good bit of sad snot started gushing, and I snotted all over myself and Bianca, but she was doing the same thing to me.

"Wait… Mina… there's something I-"

"UHHHHHNNN! Please forgive mee!" I moaned into Bianca's shoulder, feeling all the anger and guilt I had felt over our fight melting away in our snotty embrace. Nothing was worse than a fight with your friends, and we seemed to be doing that an awful to lately. "Forgive me, please please please please please please!"

"Mina! This is not the ti-"

"OF COURSE I FOORRGIVE YOOOUU!" Bianca snotted back, wriggling happily. Together we keep wriggling, kept snotting all over each other, and keep saying 'Forgive me!', 'I forgive you!'. I'm sure everybody was looking at us strangely, but who gives a damn.

"MINA. BIANCA. THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR HUGGY-SQUEAL FESTS!" Cheren finally burst, pulling us not-so-gently apart. "Thorn and I discovered something at tha-"

"CHEREN" I balled, grabbing him around the waist and face-planting into his chest, covering his red and white t-shirt with a fine layer of glistening sad snot.

"UH! MINA! I forgive you too, but there's an entirely different matter at hand! Thorn and I-"

"He's correct." Lenora pipped up, shaking us from our own happy-huggy-snot fest. She was staring at the dilapidated heap that was all that was left of her precious skeleton. "We can't just sit by while they parade around with my dragon skull. We need a plan to catch them. And quick!"

"Heeeeeey whats going oooon? Whaat did I miiiss?"

"Hrm? Look, no civilians allo-" Lenora looked uncertainly over her shoulder, eyes widening for a moment then constricting back to normal size once she saw who was talking. I pulled my head away from Cheren's chest enough to twist us around completely, looking for the body the fluffy-sounding voice belonged too.

"Good day, my dear Lenora. Find any good fossils today?" The voice said, smiling cheekily.

Lenora sighed, grasping at the bridge of her nose "Burgh this is not the time for your nonsense. We're in the middle of a crisis here!"

The voice, Burgh, smiled and shrugged stretching out his long lean body, eyeing us with a lazy eye like a pokemon about to nap. "Oh, I just came here for some inspiration, 'cuz I got aaaartists' block, and now I find you yelling at me. That's not very niiiiiiiiiiice" he smiled, giving his bushy hair a good flip. He had fabulously wild hair, bushy all over and the color of golden wheat. His body was long and lean, lanky, but with a few defined muscles through his green, v-neck shirt. He adjusted the Butterfree-shaped belt buckle on his pants, placing his hands on hips and giving us all a cutsey wink. "Hiiii everyone. My names Burgh. I'm Lenora's much more optimistic than her friiiiiiiiend."

Lenora sighed again, this time simply resigning to the strangeness of her friend instead of trying to fight his flow. "This goofball might not look like it, but he's the Castelia city gym leader."

"GYM LEADER!" Cheren screeched, readjusting his glasses, his eyes shining with the urge to egg-head out on us. "I've read about you, you are a famous painter and you use-"

"Woooow. It seems heeeeeeectic around here. Whats up?" Burgh cocked his head to the side, eyes glued on Lenora.

Lenora's re-composed face fell through again, her blind anger rearing its ugly face again. "What's up? WHAT'S UP?! Someone just walked away with an exhibit, that's what's up!"

Burgh clasped his hands together, eyes all shiny at the prospect of adventure. "Ooooh sounds like fun! We're gonna get them back, right? I want to help!"

Lenora righted herself back up, standing at her full massive height to address us all at the same time. "He's right, we need to get a move on before they drop off the grid and I lose my head permanently. Eh-hem, pun not intended. Now, Cheren, and your little blond friend, stay here and keep an eye on the museum in case those goons try to sweep in and grab anything else they want to get their grubby little hands on. Clyde can help you all out."

"Okie-dokie!" Bianca smiled happily.

"Lenora, if I might interrupt…" Cheren began.

"No, you may not. Burgh, you take Mina and you both go scour the Pinwheel forest. It's a long shot somebody would be dumb enough to try and hide out in there, but its best we take the chance and search anyways. I'm going to check out the inner most buildings of the city, as well as all the factories and warehouses. Everyone, lets regroup in an hour. We can stay in contact by Xtransiever until then." Lenora took this moment to look into each of our eyes, beseeching us for our help. I was convinced she was about to do one of those, 'do your best, but stay safe' speeches but the idea shattered when she spouted off "Get that skull back or I'm never letting any of you in my museum again! Spread out and let's go!" and with that, the big black woman turned and started jogging off into the city, Scoutland dashing behind her.

"You heard her kiddies, lets goooooo." Burgh grinned, grabbing my arm and starting to pull me off into the darkness of the forest ahead.

"WAIT, dammit, wait!" Cheren cried, coming up behind me and yanking me from Burgh's grasp. He spun me around, forcing me to look at him. He stuck a finger in my face, eyeing me with great urgency. "Listen to what I've been trying to tell you for the past ten minutes. Thorn caught your scent and followed it all the way to that little rocky clearing you were in earlier. I thought it was just a trail gone cold, but we found signs you were being _watched _by something! Thorn couldn't tell if it was a human or a Pokémon, but I'd still be on your guard if I were you." Cheren pulled his finger from my face, letting his arms hang limply at his sides, exhaling a stress-filled breath. "Ok, I'm done now."

"YOU FOUND WHAT?!"

"I told you what I found! We can't tell if its-"

"HEEEEEY. Heeeey you two, we need to go, lest Lenora will be peeeeeeeved at us. Come on, miss Miiiiiina!" Burgh popped up his head, wedging a gap between us and coming to stand at his full height, effectively separating me and Cheren. He grabbed me around the wrist again, tugging me out of Cheren's reach and breaking off into a sprint for the forest. "Cooome on!"

"Ack!" I moaned, having no choice but to resign and let myself be yanked along into the darkness. "Eevee, Thorn! Get your asses in gear and let's move!"

* * *

***Thorn's in the kitchen making a smoothie and I'm video taping him singing to Makes Me Wonder by Maroon 5***

**Thorn-*getting stuff out of the fridge* "Wake UP with bloodshot eyes, struggle to memorize ... the recipe for pie... the pleasure that is food-dye"**

***Throwing frozen strawberries in the blender at a music part***

**Thorn-"Feels so good to Brad, so worth the FLAP-jacks, Colby jack, PE-pper jack"* moonwalking attempt* "Try to get cha chewing again...!"**

***turns up radio as he dumps in half the bag of sugar***

**Thorn-"Cuz I still don't have any raisins... and you don't have no thyme. And it really makes me wonder if I ever gave a fluck about YU-kon potatoes"**

***choppin up a banana with his tail like a BAWS***

**Thorn-"Gimme SOM-thing to be BLENDIN', cuz I don't believe in stews anymore, anyymor-r-r-re." * dumps banana in* "I wonder if it e-ven makes a difference to FRIES. YEAH. OH this is gooood brieeeeeee"**

***starts blending along to the music***

**Thorn-"Oh, I've tasted this stuff BE-fore. One day I'll wake up an' I won't want Pop-tarts no more." *head bangs* "You've caught me and its time to die. You've got no alibi. You better start running POOOKE-GIRL!"**

***I drop camera and BOOK IT***


	23. Chapter 22: Facing Your Fears

Chapter 22: Facing Your Fears

"And another thing, their NAME. I mean really, Team Plasma? TP? Their just _begging _for toilet paper jokes, I mean seriously! Then there's those lame ass grunts, I tell ya-"

"Oooooh, darling, you can stop your rant now! We're heeeeeear!" Burgh chirped from my side, taking a few lengthy strides and coming up to a beaten path that branched out in two directions; one that led straight forward, to the west, the other trail taking a sharp turn north. Burgh took a messy lick from the Butterfree-shaped rainbow lollipop he had materialized from somewhere a few minutes ago, sticking it in the corner of his mouth to get his hands free.

"Really? This is it?" I broke from my rant and turned forward to peer into the dark mass of trees and vines stretching out before me in the dying light of the sun. The gravely path we had been following continued on into the dark undergrowth of the forest, though the pebbles making it up began to grow thin, giving the path a tired and skinny appearance. I felt Eevee curl up at my ankles again, his warm, soft body warming me up as a lazy breath of chilly air danced around my ankles; Thorn took a few steps towards the forest, eyeing the shadows with a curious gaze.

"Yuuup. This is the Pinwheel forest. We better get a move on finding them, or they might just manage to scuttle off and then we'll get in troooooooooouble."

"Well then" I murmured, yanking my hat down tighter on my head "Let's stop dragging our heels and get to it." I started to stomp in the direction the path followed, Thorn and Eevee at my heels.

Burgh shot out a hand and caught the back of my vest "Waaaaait a second."

I grumpily settled back to my heels, fidgeting crossly "Whaaat? You were the one who just said we better start searchin'."

"Mmm" Burgh half-hummed, flicking a few stray black-brown hairs that had snuck their way out from under my cap. "You seeeee, there's two ways in and out of the forest, ooooone that's a straight road, turning ooover theeeere," he pointed off to the fork in the path that went off to the north "and oooone that goes right through the super dark and scary Pinwheel forest, right theeeeere." He point off in front of us.

I felt a scowl wedge itself on my face, my mouth hanging open to grumble "Lemme guess, we're taking the forest path, aren't we?"

Burgh grinned, patting me on the head in some off-tune tempo he had in his head "Noooooo, silly. You are." _Pat… pat pat pat… pat…pat…. Pat pat pat pat pat._

"What?!" I felt a vein start to throb at a dangerously hard pace, threatening to pop in my forehead. I ripped his hand off my head, and he let it hang there suspended in the air above me, giving me a mildly amused look as I reared up to ambush him "Ooooh, you bushy-haired bastard…."

"Awwww, I'll be fiiiiiiine!" Burgh grinned, straightening back up and putting a hand on his hip, the other one playing with his lollipop. "There's nothing really to worry about, just a bunch o' bug-types, and some poison ivy or oak, I can't remember whiiiiiiich one, and only a few _really_ steep, 50-foot drops off into lakes. It'll be a walk in the park."

"Yeah, if I park was comprised of things THAT COULD KILL ME. I'm allergic to poison oak!" I could just feel the itchiness climbing up my arms just thinking about it. I self-consciously began to scratch at my palms, imagining the _HU-GE _pus-colored-blister-things I always get when I have poison oak. Yeah, it's not pretty.

"I tooooold, I can't remember which ooooooone is here"

"I'm going to die!"

"Oh, calm down, darling. Dooooo it for Lenoraaaa…. Pleaaaaaase?"

_"Did I happen to mention I'm weak to bug-types? Oh yeah I didn't, BECAUSE IT'S COMMON SENSE."_

"Pleasy pleasy pleasy PLEASE? It's really just a straight path. Nothing's going to happen to yooou if ya staaaay on it. Pretty please? I'll give you this potion as a going away prezzie…."

I ruffled up my hair, sighing. There was just no reasoning with this goofball. "Fine, I'll go through the forest of doom" I huffed. "But I swear, if I get poison oak and survive, I'm coming after you and murdering you… with a chop-stick."

Burgh chuckled, pulling a red and orange Super Potion from his pocket and giving it to me "Iiiiiit'll all be fiiiine. No worries! The likelihood of aaaanything like that happening to you while you're on the path ooonly 3-to-5. I have faith in yoooou."

"Yeah, yeah…" I swiped the potion from his hands, dropping it into my bag.

Burgh smiled "I'll know you'll be fine. You seem preeeeeetty strong if your Eevee could stand up to Lenoraaaaa's Stoutland. Just do your best and be saaaaafe."

I looked over my shoulder, feeling slightly warm in the face from all of Burgh's encouraging words. "Sure…. Thanks. I guess don't go die yourself."

He gave me a weird little hand motion, and a parting wink "See ya on the flip side, daaaaarling!" and with that, he took a jaunty leap in the opposite direction, proceeding to skip up the north-heading path until the shadows from the creeping moon overtook him and I could see him no more.

"Uh, how do they find me…?" I grumbled, reaching into my bag. Burgh's _enthralling _tales of the Pinwheel forest's terrors had made me think twice about just traipsing in with my Pokémon. I grabbed the pokeball I was looking for, pulling it out and pressing the button just like Thorn had shown me to. "Eevee, return."

_"But…wait, why?!" _Eevee said tensely, taking a few steps back upon seeing the ball. He kicked up a bunch of dirty white pebbles in his scramble, showering them all over our feet.

"No 'butts', 'waits', or 'whys'. I don't want you to get hurt. Back in the ball."

_"I wanna help though."_

"I'm the trainer. What I say goes."

_"Do… do you not think I'm strong enough? That I'm not worth enough?" _Eevee whimpered a bit, a hurt look overtaking his gentle face.

I resisted slapping my palm into my face. _And after all the stuff we just went through…. _"No Eevee, you're plenty strong, but I don't want you hurt. I'd rather only have to risk one Pokémon's safety rather than two. Please understand. And it's because you're worth so much to me that I don't want you hurt. Into the ball, I'm ready to get this over with." _Uh, poison oak._

Eevee gave me an unreadable look, but finally nodded his head _"Hmmm, fine. Just please be safe." _Eevee gave me an earnest look, his eyes wide with worry, but an echoing of understanding was lurking in the background of those big deep brown eyes. _"Anything happens, you call me out right?"_

I pressed the button, and in a flash of red light, Eevee was back in his ball. "You can count on it."

Thorn gave me a strange look over his shoulder, his face unreadable. I gave him a shrug and an indifferent wrinkle of my nose, taking a step onto the gravely path leading into the thick undergrowth, silently begging Arceus that there wasn't poison oak in this stupid forest. And that Burgh's stupid puffy head would explode if there was.

**OOOOOOOOO**

_"Tree branch"_

"Wait… ACK!" I had a face full of tree branch and a mouth full of leaves all of a sudden. Thorn had pulled back a branch blocking our way using his vines, and had let it snap back into place just as I was walking into it. My mouth tasted like gritty leaves and woody tree bark. I wiped my tongue off with one of my sweat bands, trying to get the grubby 'nature' taste off my tongue.

_"Mud Puddle"_

"Huh…?" _splosh! _"Ack… dammit" _wet socks…. Stupid holey boots. _Icky stagnant water splashed up my leg, soaking my laces and the exposed parts of my knee-high jet black socks.

_ "Aaand that's a rock…"_

Wrapped up in my shoes trouble, I missed the watermelon-sized rock in front of me. _Stumble, stumble _"OWWW!"

_"That's another rock…."_

"Wai… YOW!" _throbbing toes, throbbing toes._

_ "Hey, another rock! And it looks like Charles Darwin."_

"Natural Selection my a-! OW OW OW!"

_"And here you see the rare Mina-isus Poketrainer-ieka, and the wonders of natural selection taking place right before our eyes."_

"Thorn… !"

_"Ooh, and there's some poison oak"_

"WHERE?!"

_"Ah, nope, that was just another rock."_

"Grr, you little weed!"

I glared daggers at his turned back as he continued to walk on without me, as I had freaked and hopped into an innocent enough looking bush in the port side of the path. I brushed a few leaves out of my hair, standing up in the bush, which came to about chest-height on me; I scratched at a phantom itch on my palms, unsure of whether I was just being paranoid or if I really had contracted something poison. I hopped out of the bush, my soggy socks squishing in the equally as soft interior of my shoes; they reeked of mud and forest-y things and made annoying _squirch, squich! _noises as I walked.

I jogged to catch up with Thorn, who was taking a left turn on the gravely path, disappearing through a patch of ferns, not even bothering to look behind to see if I had caught up or not. I pushed my way cautiously through the ferns, stopping to check leaf shape every-so-often just in case I had come across the five-ridged leaves of poison oak. Without a single sign of the devious plant, I pushed my way through a patch of spiky ferns, emerging into a clearing where Thorn was studying the ground.

The moment Thorn saw me, he picked up his pace again, abandoning whatever was on the ground and speed-walking farther ahead of me on the path. I gritted my teeth, just staring at his waving behind as he kept a good steady pace of about sixteen steps ahead of me. I had thought everything between us would be cool now; he saved my ass, got mad at me, smacked me around a little bit and then I started blubbering, which he should really be _thankful_ I actually _showed _him such girlish emotions; and now it seemed like Thorn was still having his little hissy fit. _Pussy._

"HEY! Thorn! Weed face! What's got you all pissy? I thought everything was fine." I yelled at his turned back, not even attempting to hide my blunt puzzlement.

Thorn stopped walking, his tail twitching a bit. He turned around, giving me a twitchy glare with a hooded blood-red eye, a little fang protruding snootily out the top of his mouth _"Oh, there is nothing fine about the situation at all. You ignorant loser, has your brain gone to mush in the day I've been gone? Honestly, do you need me that much?"_

I came up behind him, balking at what he was saying "Wha… why are you so upset? I thought you forgave me. I started to cry in front of you" I crossed my arms and gave him a snobbish look of my own "You should be honored I actually shed a tear in your presence, weed."

Thorn continued to glare at me, tail starting to jerk back and forth with spastic, static movements _"I never actually said I forgave you, but that's not the issue here." _With that, be paraded off further into the bush, kicking up rocks and the roots of budding plants spitefully as he stomped past.

"Guh?!" I yelped, confused. Seeing his stupid little ass parade off in front of me, I balled up my fists, stomping down the gravely path until my longer-legged stride caught up with his little tip-toing one. _What the hell did he mean by 'Need me that much?'_ I scowled at his profile, as he kept turning his mug away from me so I couldn't look into his eyes. I made a few grabs for him, but he skillfully ducked and dodged all of my lunges, settling back effortlessly into his stride once I backed away. "Then what _is _the 'issue' then? Spit it out! You've never held anything back before." I hissed at him, trying to catch my breath from his rapid evasions. _Need you… puh!_

Thorn hardly turned to look me, taking a detour off to the left to lean up against a fallen log so that he could brush a few dirty black pebbles from their lodging in his stubby feet. _"I have my reasons." _He cast me a shallow look from under his eyelids, eyes a mixture of pity and blame. He didn't look the teensiest bit sorry.

"You… just… you!" anger…. flustered anger, hurt anger, sad anger… just plain angry anger, they all coursed through my blood, making me boil and writhe in my own skin. My head hurt and my heart ached even more. _I _certainly hadn't done shit, and now I was the obvious blame for something?! "I… I was happy to see you! I was happy you came back, I mean I was even happy you slapped me! I thought you left me alone, which by the way ain't the smartest thing to do, and now you're acting like you'd rather just be on your own again! I mean, do _emotions _mean anything to you?! I keep trying to change, but when you act like this, it's really hard! You… you….!"

Thorn sniffed, looking like he had swallowed something unsavory _"Me, me what? I'm not the one who's running around spouting off nonsense when she doesn't even know the full story."_

"I… I don't need you! You… you piece of shit!" my anger ran away with my actions, and before I could even comprehend what I was doing, I was shoving Thorn into the thicket of multicolored plants with all my might. I pushed with both of my hands, putting my entire shoulder into the thrust, letting my fingers feel him writhing in surprise under their tips. The anger controlling my actions wasn't feeling very merciful.

Thorn went tumbling into the bushes, cursing as he got cut up on some thorns protruding obscenely from a yellow bush. He fell back on his back, hitting his head against a thick grey object, causing it to clink slightly. As Thorn started to woozily pick himself up, the clinky metal thing pounced, sweeping Thorn into its crushing arms and emerging from the undergrowth, gleaming sword already poised to strike should it be needed.

"You stubborn brat! I knew someone as stupid as you would try and follow us!"

I recoiled at the suddenness of the grunt's appearance, flinching back and losing my footing on the loose gravel. I slipped, falling, but caught myself on one knee, wincing as it was grated harshly into the pebbly forest path. "Uh, I knew it! You all are hiding out here! You're toast, TP-head!"

The ginger-head grunt chuckled darkly, crushing his arm even tighter around Thorn's middle, causing Thorn to gasp with the sudden lack of oxygen "I've seen your type before, abusin' Pokémon like the good-for-nothing you are, thinking their always gonna follow your command just cause you think you control them. I saw what you just did. We're gonna save all Pokémon, and selfish trainers like you are going to pay the ultimate price! When I'm done with you-"

Thorn chomped down on the grunts arm, finding a patch of exposed suntan-oil bronze skin beneath the thick wool gloves and brutish chainmail. The grunt flailed about in surprise, tossing Thorn away from him in dumbstruck panic. Thorn was up and out of his arms in an instant, reading to jump back to the ground from his shoulder, but in the grunt's frantic panicking, he made a quick uppercut with his sword, knocking Thorn off balance. Thorn went twisting violently through the air, attention on the dark red slit blooming up his side and not on the oncoming ground.

_THORN!_

Fear filling up in my stomach, I sucked in a breath, making a lunging leap for Thorn's falling form. The moment his leafy tail graced my outstretched arms, I pulled them back, shoving him up against my chest for protection against impact with the ground, which was fast approaching. The grunt's swinging sword caught me first though, knocking me upside the head again with the flat part, breaking my momentum and sending us sprawling into another patch of grasses. I flung my arms out, trying to steady myself under the pressure of my throbbing head; through the wobbly, blurry colors that clouded my vision, I pushed myself to a rickety kneeling, attempting to hold my jolting head steady. I was struck sideways by a sudden sharp pang of head trauma, making me moan in discomfort. I fell back on my back, dazed mind half content to just lay there and let the head pain take me away to dream-land, staring up at the sunset sky through the branches of the mammoth overhead trees; but my reverie gave way at the same time the ground underneath me did.

I had that funny light-hearted-yet-scared-shitless feeling of free fall for a few moments, mind still not alert enough to really gather that I was air borne until I wasn't and my upper back crashed into the rocky slanted bank underneath me. I let out a sharp gasp at the sudden expel of air from my lungs, open mouth catching a good bit of dirt in it when the momentum of the fall caught up with me, twisting me into the hard earth. I rolled sideways down the steep peak, arms and legs flailing about and catching on everything I passed, the sheer surprise from the fall keeping me from making any real attempt to catch myself. My cyclone broke again when I hit a flat outcropping rock, sending me spinning out and crashing into the ground again. My head throbbed from the sword; my stomach ached from being jostled around so much; my legs burned with the scratches they had gotten from the numerous thorny bushes I had rolled through in my wicked tumult. My head began to wonder again, eyesight growing foggy as my brain urged the rest of me to give in and close my eyes. It was so tempting, my eyes actually started to drift close and let my body go limp; _maybe this won't be so bad…._

A furious green hissing object hit me upside the head, knocking me back into the real world. Thorn went crashing through another bush, holding his head and hissing like a lunatic. I continued to slide down the slope, now pretty much awake, gritting my teeth and trying to shield my eyes from the bazillions pointy sticks and soft-ball sized pinecones that flew past my face.

_Sheer fifty-foot drops…. No kiddin'! But where's the wa-!_

A mini yellow mushroom cloud blew up right in my face like an explosion of paint, making me sputter and sneeze, feeling my body tense up and grow stiff. Thorn and I had collided with a thick patch of scratchy weeds, their thin yellowish leaves stringy feeling with hair-like sharp edges. The mushroom cloud was really actually just a poof of yellow pollen bits that had been roused from the sharp grass when we trampled through it, but it had totally taken me by surprise and I was on the verge of losing it. I bit back another shriek as the leaves battered my face, arms flying out in hopes of catching something to slow my fall; I couldn't even find Thorn's leafy tail, lost in the yellow pollen-mist. I hit my shoulder again as the earth underneath me rose to a sharp peak…. and then disappeared completely.

I was falling. I was flailing. Fear of hitting something hard. Fear of losing Thorn. Pain all over my exposed legs, starting at my bruised ankles to the tops of my thighs. Pain etched all the way across my skull from being repeatedly smashed against all manner of things. _Freedom… flying… light-headedness… it was nice… blue… oncoming blue… shiny… my reflection… Thorn… cliff… falling… cliff… belly flop…. Gavin dared me… two piece swimsuit…. Yellow pollen…yellow…sparks?…_

_ ….. Cooling relief._

I was wet and floating. I felt myself drift upwards, the breath caught in my throat from the sudden plunge into the swampy-feeling water lifting me gently to the surface. The water felt thick and dense; muddled with so many strange and diverse things it seemed it wasn't sure what it really was anymore, liquid or solid. I bobbed to the surface, opening my eyes and wincing as water rolled down my forehead and into the cuts decorating my cheeks. Icky water filed down my forehead in squiggly lines into my eyes, and they went cloudy, blurring until the edges of the world faded into the brink on nonexistence… but strangely I was ok with it; I didn't want to see.

I let out the breath I had clutched at so tightly in my lungs that it had started to hurt, feeling my body dip and bob as it sunk a little bit in the gravity-less water. I took in a big breath, feeling myself rise slightly, pushing my chin and my shoulders out of the water. This time I held the breath, letting my mind readjust to being sedentary after spinning and flailing down the steep slope at such a nauseating pace. Though the water was icky to the touch, it cooled my burning limbs, and for a while I just let myself float there, bobbing up and down with my breaths, allowing the healing water to soothe my aching body. The sounds of the forest were so loud and proud I could hear them underwater, the shrill chirps and clicks distorted by the water in such a way the sounded more like alien starships passing overhead instead of actual Pokémon. There were rustles and splashes, but I ignored them, my pounding mind focusing on slowing down to be on par with the calm temperament of the water.

Reality snapped back into place with a hiss of pain.

I shot up from my back, readying myself to tread water but only finding the pond I had been soaking in to be about four feet deep, allowing me to wade to the shore with almost no trouble. _The fall, the grunt, Thorn, the pollen puff…!_ I thrashed furiously through the water, dragging my waterlogged-self up onto the back and collapsing on all fours from exertion once I touched the gritty grey pond bank. My mind was racing in all manner of directions; it was hard to concentrate on just one thing, but somehow I managed to steady myself to only think about one thing: getting to shore. I breathed deeply, enjoying the feel of earthbound firmness underneath me. My light jean vest had become drenched with water, turning the airy fabric into an annoying hitch hiker with intent to make me sink. My leather boots weren't too soaked, but they were heavy none-the-less, making for another arduous hindrance for getting to shore. I whipped my hat off my head, letting the filthy pond water run down from my hair into my face and cool me down, the sting of the water in my cuts reenergizing me. There was another figure hunched on the bank of the pond with me, and was breathing hard, one arm flung across his body to clutch at his inflamed side, wearing an unsteady smirk.

_ "Hi. Nice you decided to join me." _Thorn chimed sarcastically, a strain of a grimace strung across his scratched face. He gave me another sour half-smirk, then busied himself with looking over his wound; he pulled his hand away from his side, grunting at the sight of his bluish-tinted blood dripping leisurely off his fingers and falling to the grey beneath him. Rolling his eyes like it was all some silly joke, he placed his hand back on his side, biting his lip as he put pressure on the wound in an effort for it to stop spurting blood. I pushed myself to a kneeling, mind still churning but I forced to focus on Thorn, crawling over to his side and accidently sending up a shower of gritty grey sand all over Thorn. His teeth pulled back in a sharp reflexive hiss as pebbles and forest dust landed in his open lesion. _"Ow." _

"Ack… Thorn? Thorn?! Are you alright?" He didn't answer, and I was seriously freaking out; the cut from the grunt's sword didn't seem to be too bad, but all the blood was making me nervous. I cringed as he pulled his had away again, and then proceeded to wipe his forehead with the back of his hand, smearing a messy trail of liquid crimson over himself. _Blood…. _I fought back the incontestable urge to start heaving. I had always been nervous around blood; bad memories, you know? But I gave myself a mental kick for being a baby and busied myself with trying to wipe down Thorn's side with a washcloth I had swiped from the Pokémon Center in Accumula town. I dipped a tail of it into the pond, swirling it around in the particle-y water before wringing it out the best I could with my shaky hands and applying it to Thorn's side. The washcloth was pure white, and quickly turned a sickly reddish-brown as I cleansed the gash. I kept my eyes on Thorn to keep from throwing myself in the pond and hacking up my lunch. I tried not to notice the disturbing rust-colored hint my fingers were being dyed.

Thorn was gritting his teeth even more now, pupils thin as a paper cut; he had made a few attempts at pushing me away but they were half-hearted and jerky, and he found it easier to just not struggle. He kept glancing at his right arm, which was hanging limply at his side, and it was not moving besides the occasional jitter or twitch. I was watching it too; the cloud of yellow pollen came to mind.

"Thorn…? Are you ok?"

He wrinkled his nose in a most distasteful manner _"I don't know, I just fell down a fifty-foot hill after being sliced up like a piece of meat by some bonehead with a superiority complex, rolled through a patch of sun spores after being called a piece of shit and then landing in a filthy pond, again, fifty feet from where I started. DO I SEEM OK?"_

I wanted to slap him with the wash cloth so bad, but I knew this wasn't the situation or time for pettiness. I tossed the drenched washcloth away, hearing it land with a thick-sounding slap in the vile pond water a few feet away, and reached for Thorn's limp arm. I held it in my hand, poking it in a few places, to all of which he didn't respond. A growing uneasiness was forming a mass cocoon of worry in my gut; Thorn _was _paralyzed from the sun spores, at least for the time being. It had been a sun spore plant we had rolled through. I looked us both over, wincing at the various crimson-gushing scratches and scrapes adorning both of our beaten bodies. I growled, mind turning pessimistic. I don't think we could make it through any more incidents like this, much less take on a whole brigade of Swoobat-shit crazy grunts. This was taking a downward spiral, fast. _Dammit, Burgh. You're gonna hear about this._

I pushed myself to a shaky standing, forcing my quaking legs to stay put underneath me. I reached out a helpful hand to Thorn "Can you stand?"

_"What do you mean, insolent trainer? Of course I can stand. I DON'T need YOU." _He spat at me, climbing to a wobbly standing of his own. The words stung as they cut deep in my chest, causing my arm to go limp and my teeth to be set on edge. Those were the exact same words I had yelled at him only a few minutes ago, but he had seemed completely unfazed by it; hearing them thrown right back at you just seemed to worsen the pain. I watched Thorn try out his legs, taking a few teetering steps forward; the slick shine of ruby blood still gleamed off his forehead, making me nauseous all over again.

_"Well what are you still standing around for, we need to- UH!" _

Thorn collapsed on the ground, breathing hard, his whole body spasming in jerky, almost puppet-like movements. He wiggled on the ground like a Dwebble on its back, tail waving wildly in the air like an animated scythe. My knees hit the ground immediately, and I was pulling him not up, but upon second thoughts into my lap. He tried to claw me off, even making a few weak swings with his tail in an effort to cut me, but was shocked by the sun spores' paralyzing affect back against my knees.

_This is baaaaaaaaaaaaddd _I thought franticly to myself. _The paralysis is worse than I thought. He can hardly move, much less fight I bet. _My own body felt tight and jerky from going through the patch of sun spores, but Thorn had gone through first, and it looked like he took the brunt of the damage. He made another weak effort at scratching me again, but I batted his hand down, pushing his little body against my chest and holding it there for a moment; Thorn froze instantly, even his breathing seeming to cease.

I was going to ready myself to get to my feet, but found myself enjoying holding him close. I pulled my arms in a little tighter; extinguish the gap of empty air between his stomach and mine. He was so small, so scrawny, I would never have noticed it just by looking at him. But now with him in my arms I could feel just about every bone in his body, every beaten scale on his skin, and I couldn't help but think if it was my fault. If it was my fault he was so bitter and unhappy.

Thorn spasmed against me again, and I knew what I had to do.

I pushed myself to my feet, maintaining a shaky equilibrium between my weakened legs and my arms folded into my chest. Shaky at first, I began walking away from the pond, tracing around its edge and ending up at the foot of the hill again. I had caught sight of a ruble-covered path spiraling up it, and I planned to take it; take it all the way back to Nacrene city.

_"Hey… where are we going? The… the normal path's that way….?" _Thorn mumbled against my chest, pushing around my fingers to get a glimpse at where we were going. _"Um, hello? Earth to Mina-isus Poketrainer-ieka, the path leads THAT way. We're going AWAY from the grunts and stuff." _He tried pushing himself out of my hands, but stiffened with the paralysis and was forced back against me chest.

I scowled, intent on what I was going to do "We're not going after the grunts. I'm getting you to a Pokémon center." I couldn't bring myself to look at him; to be honest, I was scared he was going to spit in my eye or something.

Thorn went quiet, completely surprising me. I had expected some snarky jab or an angry pop-off in defiance, but heard nothing. Instead I felt him pull away from my chest again, appearing beneath my chin as a little green bobble-head; he reached up with a hand and grabbed at my jaw, forcing my chin back against my neck in an awkward bend to be able to look at him.

_"Why are you abandoning this? You promised Lenora you would help get her dragon skull back. What's YOUR deal now?" _

With all the firmness I could muster, I yanked my jaw away, turning my head back forward in time to step over a crumbly pile of bricks I almost barreled into. "I have my reasons." I gave Thorn the same line he had given me, but it didn't give me any satisfaction. My own reasons…. That was just scratching the issue _lightly. _If he ever found out the real reason I was doing this… he'd probably hate me. Make fun of me. _Me and that stupid secret dream. _I'm not sure why I still call it a dream; it was more of a selfish desire, an unreasonable ideal. Thank Arceus no one could figure it out just by looking at me; my façade wasn't broken _that_ easily. But I feared that one day it would be broken, and the people I cared about would find out and leave me. Pessimistic, right?

I found myself wondering if anyone would ever understand, if anybody else could at least sympathize with me; is it bad to wish I could _actually _trust Thorn enough to tell it to?

A sharp bird cry sounded out in the distance, followed by the sound of little feet skittering around us; orangey dead leaves crackled under their tiny feet, sticks snapped as they crawled quickly by, the trees rustled and leaves fell down onto my head from their scampering across the dark brown tree branches above. The noises sent a shiver crawling down my spine, setting my whole body in alarm-mode and on edge. Thorn in my arms tensed up too, trying to make an effort to pull his head up enough to see what was going on around us. I stiffened when I saw a little eight-legged, dome-shaped figure run through a pile of dead leaves, sending them up in a plume of yellows and browns. It scampered under my feet, and I shrieked shamelessly like a little girl.

Bug-types. We were surrounded on all sides by _bug_-types.

I recoiled again as another small-ish figure darted past my feet in the tangled undergrowth. Thorn was even starting to get uneasy, turning his head at the slightest sound of a rustle, jumping a few times when I let out a harsh breath of surprise. Burgh had warned us about bug-types, but I had completely forgotten about it until now. Still, we crept along the path, my legs starting to shiver along the way.

I decided to preoccupy myself with admiring the scenery, rather than spazing out over the scurrying bugs all around us. The path we were taking had sorta rounded out to form a dome of sorts, all the tree branches above curving to form a leafy canopy, shading us from the emerging moon's light, and giving it all a rather creepy glow. Flowers and vines clung to just about every branch, ranging in colors from orange to gold and even a pinkish-purple amethyst; unconsciously, I found myself searching for one of those exotic white flowers from my dreams, their moon-colored petals sure to be visible in the light of the waxing moon. A tropical jungle like this one seemed to be the perfect place for a flower like that, but I found none. Shame to say, I was a little disappointed. Anything to really tie that dream back to the real world would have been a comforting find, proving that I really wasn't completely off my rocker. I brushed my hand past a fern bush, loving the feel of the slightly-sharp leaves digging into my finger pads, leaving their dew on them. I had noticed it earlier, but it seemed like the forest was completely shielded from the exhausting drought that was plaguing the rest of the region; I mean there was still water in the pond we had fallen into, and dew adorned most leafy surfaces and even a few pitcher plants still had water in them. It puzzled me a bit, but it kinda made me happy too. It was nice to know the world still had some life left in it. Minus the bug-types, the Pinwheel Forest had a sort of enchanting feel to it, seeming like the jungle you'd expect to find a long lost civilization's ancient temple or some monstrous guardian sealed into the ground here.

_"Mi-na…. there's something… ahead of us." _Thorn mumbled out from behind my arms, grabbing my attention away from the wild Pinwheel jungle and back to the matter at hand. A shadow had appeared before us, huddling close to the ground but seeming to slightly spin almost. The path had narrowed, and now towering piles of bricks and cement chunks were crowding us in on the sides, forcing us to look forward at our roadblock. I felt my shoulders tensing up again, and I don't think it was the sun spores' doing.

_We were being stalked…. _My mind whispered chillingly to myself, causing my heart to seize up like sputtering engine. I had been so wrapped up in my fear I hadn't noticed at all. And now it looked like we were going to suffer for it. _The bugs have gotten brave haven't they?_

I took a slight step back, eyes still on the strange rotating thing in front of us, which had started to glow slightly as the moon began to shine its silver rays of light on the clearing. The product was a broken image of the surroundings, curtsy of the trees blocking most of the light from reaching the path, but still it illuminated the creature in front of us, effectively halting my attempt to escape. Sweat ran down my temples into my eyes, but I could still see the creature rather well, which only heightened my growing fear.

It was…. a bug-type. It had to be; it was steamroller shaped, its body being entirely circular, with only a pair of horns and a striped tail breaking its spherical form. It had dark eyes placed deep into holes on its flat sides, and they glowed a gleaming dirty gold from the little pockets they inhabited along the sides of the creature. I realized it was rotating slightly because that was how it _moved_; it took a few wheeling scoots forward to confirm my thoughts. Besides being terrified out of my mind, I realized I was actually interested in the strange thing; I pulled out my pokedex, flicking it on and letting it boot up, intent on seeing what this strange steamroller-bug was.

_"Mina, I don't think that's a good idea-"_

_"SSSSSSSSSCCCCCCCCCCCCRREEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEE!"_

The bug thing was _screeching _at the top of its lungs; I jumped back in shock, jostling Thorn around and almost dropping him and my pokedex. The thing still continued screaming, and it seemed to be growing stronger by the second, whipping up a whirlwind of dust and decaying matter along the forest floor and throwing it up into our faces. I tried to make out my pokedex among the flying matter, only to find the screen had gotten a gruesome crack running along its left side and that the screen had smeared and was now just an indecipherable mess of watercolor paint strokes and blurred text. I threw it back into my bag without a second thought; I would deal with it later, but I had to get away from this thing!

The screeching was starting to make my ears ring, my brain going fuzzy just like my pokedex screen in an effort to think straight. Thank Arceus I wasn't thinking straight or else we might not have made it.

I took a running leap at the screaming creature, bounding off its head and taking off down the path it had been blocking. I pumped my arms hard, hearing the strange steamroller-bug roll around in the leaves it had kicked up moments ago, where it was getting up or being flung down, I wasn't sure. But I didn't spare the time to look back; I had to get us out of here. Thorn had wrenched his way out of my arms, and was now manning my back with his vines ready like a green star-trooper. I pounded down the path, not even attempting to try and hear if the bug was coming back, focusing on my breathing; I was breathing at an unnaturally rapid pace, my heart and my lungs seeming to be working on different intervals and ending up leaving me woozy and breathless.

"HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT SHIT SHIIIIIIIT!"

_"Hey! Spaz attack! It disappeared! I can't see it anymore!" _Thorn yelled out from behind, but I still could barely hear him over my rapid breathing, pounding feet, and nonsensical freakish babbling. His words sent another shiver of fear down my spine though; not knowing where the damn thing was might've been a really good thing or a really, really bad thing.

A gleam of moonlight caught my eye and my heart leapt with joy as we neared the end of the path. I pumped my arms even harder, feeling my once strangled breaths grow lighter and easier as I began to near the light. _A clearing! I just hope it's the exit! _I prayed, leaping over a scraggly wormwood bush and darting into the light of the clearing, mentally crossing my fingers as I was momentarily blinded by the sudden harshness of the moonlight._ Please be the exit!_

"HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-!"

I was face planting. Something had knocked me over _again. _I wormed around, trying to get a feel for where I was at so suddenly, instead of landing on my feet. With a disgusting realization, I found I was sprawled out in the mud, wet and goopy mud, and my side had begun to itch furiously. _Crap._

_ "MINA! Steamroller at twelve o'clock!"_

"It's a little late for that, Thorn- HOLY SHIT!"

The bug was back, but it had company. Grey chainmail wearing company. A raven-haired female grunt stood proudly at its side, hands on her scrawny hips, her hair streaming around her like some evil vixen in the darkness. The grunt and the bug were standing in the middle of the field, completely visible from all sides, and it looked like they had been planning this from the very beginning.

"Hehe! I lured you right into my trap!" she giggled, sounding exactly like a giddy sixteen-year-old after she pulled a genius prank on her wannabe underlings. With a second glace, she really did seem to look sixteen. _What's up with all these kids in Team Plasma? I mean she can't be any older than me!_

"Plasma trash…. What do want?" I growled, rising from the mud. I tried my best to wipe if off, but it didn't seem too keen on budging so I left it there to dry. I focused on staring down scrawny teenage grunt in front of me.

She giggled again "The real question is what do _you _want? Do I have the skull you're after? Do I have the directions out of the forest so you can get your pwecious wittle Snivy to swaftey? Or am I just an empty-handed distraction? You'll never know unless you beeeeeeeeat meeee!" she sing-songed, doing a silly half turn and letting her black hair swirl around her, momentarily camouflaging her within the night sky.

_They HAD been stalking us! I knew it! _There was no other way they could know I was ditching Lenora for Thorn. Still, it didn't look like this chick and her steamroller-bug were letting us go easy, so I guessed we had to go on the offensive to make it out of here. No matter how much it scared me to have to take on that freaky bug, I knew I had to suck it up, for Thorn's sake.

"Thorn, can you battle?" I didn't have time to get Eevee up to speed on what was going on, so I knew I would have to risk it with Thorn.

_ "Just tell me what to do so I can SQUISH THAT SUPERSIZED GRAPE LIKE A BUG." _Thorn snarled, readying himself at my side.

"Whirlipede, Poison Sting!" The grunt giggled, pointing a finger playfully at Thorn as direction for her massive bug.

"Thorn, dodge it! Don't get poisoned!" I screeched at the top of my lungs; getting poisoned on top of being paralyzed would just be adding insult to injury. Thankfully Thorn was able to flip out of the way, avoiding all the purple-tipped barbs that had shot from Whirlipede at him. A tremulous spasm rippled through him though, causing my heart to shudder watching his whole body squirm involuntarily; he landed in a heap on the ground, far from sticking the landing.

"Come on Whirlipede, Poison Tail!" she tried again. Whirlipede was extremely fast, spinning out like a racecar wheel before leaping into the air and coming down on Thorn with its tail dripping a vile purple liquid. Its strike was quick, but not at all painless, slashing Thorn right up his injured side from the sword. He screamed bloody murder, shaking the whole area with his shrieks. He was back on the ground, his whole body shaking with tremors, his hand back at his side to cradle the purple-tinted blood oozing out of his wound. My breathing caught in my chest again; _he can't be poisoned, can he?!_

Thorn's cries only seemed to make the grunt happier, and she began to twirl more and more feverishly, spinning in time with her Whirlipede. "Ooh, and now, the grand finale! Swarm, swarm all of you! Whirlipede, call them all to swarm!" she did another dizzying turn, landing in a perfect ballet fifth position, grinning like the complete and utter maniac she was.

Whiripede began making a strange noise, drawing my attention it, and making me blink twice; it was _humming. _It wasn't like when it had been screeching; this was much more subtle, almost like the music in movies right before the big storm starts tearing everything apart. I watched it quiver and hum, and gasped as the grasses and bushes around us seemed to come alive with the sound of scurrying feet. Everywhere, feet, little feet, pointy feet, scampering feet; they filled the air and made my heart start pounding off beat again. Thorn was crawling back to his feet, a look of pure hate-driven determination brooding in the backs of his eyes. His face became pinched even tighter once he realized what was happening.

The forest gave one more shudder, and then seemed to explode, all manner of bug-types erupting from the sidelines. Leaf-covered Sewaddles marched across the ground, reddish-purple Venipedes crawling alongside them; rolling Whirlipedes, waddling Swadloons, and even a few tall plant-covered bugs with towering leaf collars and pointed blades for arms came marching out. They all came to crowd around the center, literally swarming around the humming Whirlipede. The grunt had her arms wrapped around her, positively shaking with delighted laughter.

"Ooh, don't you see? Whirlepede's special ability is Swarm, which boots its bug-type moves in a battle, and can summon all manner of bugs to it when it calls, making an unstoppable armada of bugs! Bet you and your little grass-type are scared out of your minds right now, right?!"

I went stone still, my breathing going deathly silent. My body shuddered violently, my mind a torrent of alarm signals and horrid memories. I felt my arms wrapping around myself, my hands cold and clammy from fear but still providing some stability amongst all the quivering I was doing. The grunt was right: I was scared out of my mind. I was shaking in my boots, the aglets on my pink shoelaces knocking against the sides of my shoes and making little _clack clack _noises, but to me they just sounded like more horrid bug-type feet. I had never seen so many bug-types all at once before; I was so frickin' scared, my body was screaming at me to run, but I couldn't abandon Thorn; much help I was though, just standing there like a doll. Like mindless, defenseless, shell of a person, who could do nothing but stare straight forward with a painted look on her face.

My crippling fear of bug-types… it harkened back to when I was a kid, only nine-years old. Bianca and I had just started actually working with the Pokémon in Professor Juniper's lab, and had gotten overexcited one day after helping her care for a Pokémon called a 'Larvesta'. I had actually smuggled it out of the lab, in hopes that we could keep playing with it even if we weren't in the lab. And of course I didn't tell Professor Juniper. Well, it had been really late at night and Bianca and I were out playing with Larvesta on Route one when… it evolved. It was so sudden, first we were battling wild Lillipup, and then next Larvesta was being engulfed in this crazy wave of fiery power. At first we had thought it was hurt, because it was calling out horrifyingly, but then it started to change form: it sprouted these six magnificent flame-colored wings, and its body grew long and changed colors, a luminous creamy white and an enchanting sky blue. At first we were stunned by the sudden change, both smiling wildly once we figured out it wasn't hurt, only evolving; but then it attacked.

It had been out of nowhere, striking with the speed and lethality of a bullet, only so much worse. It used _fire, _and we became enveloped entirely in a rapid vortex of flame, forcing us into a huddle as the fire swirled around us. Bianca had been wailing uncontrollably, and I had been shaking too, but I held firm, shielding her from most of the attack. My arms had burned and my hair had been singed, but still I protected her. It had been so hot… so scary…. but the Fire Spin hadn't even been the worse part. It had then pounced on us, clamping its jaws around my neck so hard I thought it would break it in two and that would be it for me. But it had flung me aside after only a moment, fluttering like a drunk hungrily over to the much meatier Bianca. It had latched onto her then, clamping its crushing jaws around her neck, feeding off her like a vampiric parasite. And… there was nothing I could do to stop it. I had been too weak, too frozen by fear and shock to even attempt to jump the massive bug-beast. The attack had been so startling; it made it even scarier. And all I could do was watch that horrid bug drain Bianca's body until she did nothing but twitch.

We were saved, but only just barely. Professor Juniper had come charging in at the very last second, releasing her Cinccino with commands to Rock Blast the beast off of Bianca. It worked, and the thing had been pinned down to the ground, where it died shortly after. We both were rushed to the hospital, but I was in and out in a matter of about a half hour, thick gauze around my neck and cotton balls stuffed under huge pink square bandages over my burns; but Bianca took so much more time being healed. I had been in complete emotional agony the entire time I stood outside in the waiting room, completely clueless like a nine-year-old would be in this kind of situation. To everyone's relief, Bianca had recovered fine, and she wasn't even scared emotionally at all the by experience, her newfound devotedness to Professor Juniper the only real change in her from the incident. But I… I was scared big time. Watching your best friend be eaten away by some vicious unknown thing that attacked out of nowhere, how could you not just lose it a little? And now, staring at all the bugs and their hungry-looking jaws gnashing in front of me, I couldn't help but feel that same overwhelming trauma I had felt that night seven years ago coming back to me; I felt like I was swallowing my own soul, choking on my fear until it expanded in my throat and cut off my breathing.

_"I… hate you. I hate you…"_

My eyes were miraculously peeled from the horrifying scene on front of me; Thorn was somehow pushing himself on, and was now walking right into the frenzied armada of bug-types, vines snapping over his head. I wanted to call him off, I wanted to call him off so bad, but my throat was still tight, and I couldn't get so much as a gasp to escape my lips. I tried to move, and I was able to make a few jerky snatches at his tail, but Thorn kept walking, his muttering getting louder and louder.

_"I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you." _He had reached the fringes of the bug-type herd, but he didn't stop there. He kept going in, smacking away the Sewaddles and Venipedes darting at him with nary a second glance. His eyes were glued to the Whirlipede in the center of the hoard.

The grunt giggled, putting a finger on her lips playfully as if she was contemplating something "Ooh, trying a last ditch effort to save yourselves? Hehe, grass-type moves are very ineffective on bug-types." She did another twirl, kicking up a whirlwind of leaves, which then fluttered up into the wind, swirling around us. One brushed by my face, but I hardly noticed the thin trail of dirt that had streamed down my face; in the back of my mind, the brain was starting to work again. _The leaves… _my body was able to blink again. I blinked, trying to will myself into working out the answer t to this messy equation we had walked into. Fear still held the strings to commanding my mind, and a battle of wills was raging inside of me. _I have to help… Thorn!_

_ "I hate you." _Thorn heartlessly batted down another helpless bug, snapping his vine once and watching it fall incapacitated to the ground. "_I really, really hate you." _He snarled, taking out one of the tall leaf-collared Pokémon, red eyes still locked on to the grunt's Whirlipede.

The grunt hadn't made a single move since she had summoned all the bugs here, just sitting there, grinning at us. _She's just playing with him…! _The thought sent another ripple of determination through me, severing another string fear had struck into me. I blinked again, daring to take a step forward. My mind was starting to clear; the fog was diminishing. My only thought left was about Thorn.

The grunt smiled again, waving covertly with two of her fingers to the bugs on the fringes of the herd to start folding in; the moved silently, Thorn in his hate-filled rampage too caught up to notice. Within seconds they had closed him in, blocking all ways to escape. I suddenly knew what the grunt was planning to do. She lured him into the very heart of the hoard, tantalizing him with the prospect of free-reign attacks on Whirlipede. She was going to let the bug mob him the second he reached the dead center.

And I wouldn't be able to reach him.

_"I hate you. I hate you." _Thorn kept walking right into her trap, making the black-haired grunt smile even more wickedly. The bugs were still moving in, and Thorn's path to Whirlipede was getting skinnier and skinnier. He wasn't even slapping away the bugs anymore, just moving through to get to the steamroller-bug. He had finally reached the center of the forming circle, hardly batting an eyelash at the looming bugs; but instead of the anger he had been displaying just a moment ago, he looked… almost bored. Thorn glanced around with a flippant look on his face, giving his would-be opponents a sassy glare while playing with his nails like a preppy girl.

Not aware of the fact Thorn wasn't threatened by the massive bugs, the grunt laughed again, with an evil, heart wrenching nastiness that drew all eyes to her "Mmm, I wish there was only a bigger prize for our little endeavor. Toooooo bad! I guess I'll just settle for letting you watch us as we rip him to shreds! Bugs…!" she raised her finger in the air, and at a disturbingly slow pace, pointed to Thorn "Swarm!"

"THORN!" The fear was back, eradicating all the progress for a plan to escape my brain had made. My knees shook, my heart starting to flail within my chest. _Bianca…. It's just like then…_

The bugs circled Thorn threateningly, daring to swipe out with claws dripping with messy toxins, only to pull away mockingly once Thorn jumped skittishly away. He was rotating; he was spinning in slow circles in an effort to see where all the bugs were at the same time. He kept spinning, and the bugs kept drawing closer, their swipes becoming aimed, the intent to strike down, not falsely swipe. All the while Thorn still kept his cool, dancing out of the way of the attacks, eyes calculating and precise, never messing up once. I was utterly surprised he could move this well, still being paralyzed.

The grunt was beginning to notice Thorn wasn't a shriveled poisoned heap, and was stomping her feet in a hissy fit "Hey! Stop moving! Bugs, swarm more! Hit him!" she yelped, stamping her feet around in a contemptuous circle.

My heart was speeding up again, lurching in my throat each time Thorn dodged an attack; but I still couldn't move, as fear had sunk its hooks into me again. The circle had grown tight, and there was no more space for Thorn to dodge the attacks. "Thorn…!" was all I could croak out in a fear-strangled voice.

Thorn stopped moving, much to the grunt's delight "See! Valiance won't get you aaaaanywhere! You should have come in with a plan, rather than just charging in, and now you're gonna paaaaay!" she giggled, jumping from one foot to the other, knight's costume jingling and clanking along with her.

Thorn tossed his head defiantly, giving the grunt a haughty glare that could only be described as Thorn's _"Hmm, you think that I'm really that competent? I have this all under control…. Observe."_

The attack was so quick, if I blinked, I would have missed it. Thorn had given his body one sharp contorted flip, and a gigantic Leaf Tornado ripped through the legions of bugs surrounding him. The sharp-edged leaves flew everywhere, slicing through both Pokémon and human skin, and tearing up all the dewy grass around us. A rouge wave of leaves shot past my face, making me flinch and cover my eyes, but something else made me uncover them.

Thorn was…. Glowing?!

Thorn was suspended mid-fall back to the ground, but his entire body had become enveloped in a gleaming multicolored light; the colors pulsed and oozed, flowing like liquid magic all over his body. Thorn wiggled around surprised, but was stopped instantly once his body started to change. His torso grew longer, and thinned out even more until he was as skinny as a vine; his collar stiffened, shooting out like a sprouting plant and straightening to line up against his elongated neck; his legs grew longer, his arms shrinking to the size of ivy leaves pressed up against his body, and two extra leaves sprouted along his back, three-pronged just like his tail; the light seemed to condense, and he gave one final shudder before it broke off into a shower of green-tinted sparkles, and the new Thorn summersaulted to the ground.

_"Servine!" _

_ Thorn… evolved?! _I was in stagnant shock, but not from fear; my body began to unfreeze, and I found myself scrambling forward on my hands and knees through the muck, scampering right up to him and crushing him in my grip just like when we had been sitting by the pond. His head was slightly less bulbous, and it fit better against my chest than it had before "You evolved… right?!" There _was_ the slim chance I was hallucinating, and I had to ask, just to be sure.

_"Uh, I think so. 'Servine' doesn't sound like 'Snivy', now does it?" _Thorn asked with a mildly annoyed voice, which only made me crush him in my grip tighter. He didn't fight back though, wrapping his shrunken hands as best as he could around my wrists, the only place he could get his itty hands around me. He nuzzled me with his nose, making me smile even more. The new Thorn smelled just like the old one, only with a hint more of tree sap.

"That's not right! You're supposed to be squished!" the forgotten raven-haired grunt whined from a few feet away, yanking the sharp leaves from her long straight hair, slicing up her hand in the process. She let out an annoyed 'Uh!', shaking her fingers wildly as little streams of her blood sprinkled off into the grass.

I gave her a knowing hooded-eyed smile "Well, in case you haven't noticed, all your bugs have fled! They got scared by a little old grass snake…" I glanced down at Thorn, earning a chuckle from him at my joke.

The grunt was steaming, her head twisting in all directions in all directions to see where her bugs had gone; the remainder that hadn't fainted had fled for the trees, leaving trails of broken leaves in their wake, the incapacitated ones lying still on the ground with comically squished up faces with leaves buried in their sides. Only the grunt's own Whirlipede still stood in the clearing, but it was weak, teetering from side to side on its axis in an effort to stay upright.

It would only take on solid blow to knock it down "Thorn, Leaf Tornado!" I snapped my fingers and he did as I obeyed, whipping up another torrent of swirling leaves and throwing them at the helpless Whiripede; Whilipede was too weak to dodge, getting a full-strength Leaf Tornado to the face, and went spiraling into the air and across the field, smacking up against a fallen willow tree and landing in the ground with a muddy _squich. _

The grunt's eyes flew wide, taking a few steps and began to run to her fallen Pokémon, but was stopped in her tracks as two whip-thing vines snagging around her ankles "Thorn, use Vine Whip!" the grunt was dragged to the ground, being held in place by a vine plunged into the ground to act as the leather strap to her straight jacket. She writhed and wiggled in place, but the vine held firm and she stayed put. She cursed loudly, and I must say she had an even worse potty mouth than I did.

"That was amazing!" I couldn't help but yell right in Thorn's face, giving him the best noogie I had ever given anyone, grinding my knuckle playfully into his head and grinning like a maniac.

Thorn tried to slap away my hand, but his arms were too short, so he had to settle with playfully clawing at my arm _"Well, duh, I know I'm amazing. I told everyone I had it under control."_

I pulled my hand away, playing with his new leafy collar, finding I enjoyed his new collar more than the other one; the leaves felt like palm frowns and felt good when you rubbed your hand across it "So you knew you were about to evolve?"

Thorn scratched at his face, giving me a funny sideways look _"Well, no. That was kinda a surprise."_

My eyes were drawn to his injured side again; the stream-lined cut had dulled to a deep red, forming a layer of healing skin over the wound, his skin puffy with inflammation instead of being flat and papery. "Hey, your cut seems to have healed a bit. Are you still paralyzed?" I poked at his right arm, seeing if it was still limp. _It was amazing what evolving could do to a Pokémon; they seemed to get stronger right away. _

Thorn's right arm jerky slightly, but fell back into place at his side, still completely useless _"Hey I evolved, not re-spawned." _Thorn's arm gave a twitchy jerk, and my heart fell again. He poked at his tail, wrinkling his nose at the little sparks of yellow static jumping off his skin. _"Do you know how to heal paralysis, BWT?"_

I bit my lip, the former giddiness of Thorn's evolution replaced by fear-drenched worry. I had no idea how to cure paralysis, which was why I was taking Thorn to the Pokémon center in the first place. The whole burn-thing the day I left home had been a lucky coincidence; I usually zoned out during the healing-training part of Pokémon ED, but for some reason remembered the thing about the Rawst berry leaves by a chance of pure luck. And now, after checking out during all those classes that might've provided the answer I needed, I was seriously regretting it.

I brightened "Well, we found a path again. We can just go to the Pokémon center like we planned and then head out to Casteilia. No need to go tromping through the… bug-ridden woods…. Yuck." I shuddered at the idea of having to encounter even more bugs on this damn excursion; seeing fifty bugs at one time was fifty too many in my opinion.

Thorn gave me a weary look, raising an eyebrow; I'm sure he would have crossed his arms too, you know, if they could reach _"We just got on their trail again, we can't just abandon thread now. You promised Lenora."_

"Yeah, but you're more important. You're paralyzed, and I'm sure you don't want to go through those creepy-crawler filled woods again…" I stammered, trying to keep my cool. The bugs were an absolute terror that I didn't want to face again.

_"You need to heed your promises, dummy." _Thorn snapped at me with his vine, just grazing my skin, but not actually touching me _"I can handle myself alright now, but you promised Lenora. And Burgh's such an airhead, he's probably been captured by TP or fallen into a lake himself. Come on, let's goooooo….." _he wrapped a vine around my wrist, attempting to pull me to a standing.

"B-but you're hurt… and bug-types…" _and... that extra fear...!_

Thorn sighed, rolling his eyes; he lessened his grip, and I fell back to the ground on my knees. _"I know you're a total wuss when it comes to bugs, but you gotta deal with it. But… you know…" _he messed with his collar, and embarrassed look covering over his face _"I was…. Slightly frightened by the thought of walking into that hoard of bugs, but I did it anyway. I faced my fears and so can you. Man up and stop being selfish, or I'm totally slapping you again."_

I sniffed, trying to keep my feelings in check; my fear of bug-types was really only the cover for what I was truly afraid of right now. Sure, the bugs were absolutely _terrifying _but the other fear… that so much worse. And Thorn trying to go off and stop TP wasn't helping. And if I didn't go with him, then what? Was he going to leave me? The thought of being alone again…. _Noooooo, _I mentally slapped myself upside the head. Worrying about it wasn't gonna help me; I wanted to stay with Thorn, so I was going after Lenora's skull; plain and simple. It wasn't exactly facing my fears, but it was the best I could do right now.

I put a finger on my lips, tapping it thoughtfully "But we can't just run around the forest all night waiting for grunts to jump us. We need a plan."

Thorn tapped his foot, hand on his chin _"True story. We ain't even got a solid lead on where the rest of TP's at…"_

I contemplated this a moment longer; my thoughts turned to our prisoner. "We got her." We both turned and looked the grunt, who was trying to chew her way through the vines, and was failing miserably. Her tongue was turning green from the chlorophyll's tint.

She gave us a horrified look "Wait, what?! What do you need _me_ for?!"

* * *

**Poke-peoples of fanfiction, I am Pokegirl**

**Thorn-"And I am Thorn. I EVOLVED THIS CHAPTER MADA-FLUFFAS!"**

**Sigh, I think they already know -.- Sorry its been so long since the last chapter was posted, but I'm trying to write longer, higher quality chapters so this might become a normal routine, waiting a week or two for new stuff. PLEASE BEAR WITH ME.**

**Thorn-"Uh, all the bug-types scurrying around... BUR I BEAT THEM ALL! MWAHAHAHAHAAA!"**

**Thorn is now a Servine! Yea! So, theres only going to be one more heavy chapter before we have a super wacky humor chapter coming up the chapter after next. Want a hint? It involves jumping off the Skyarrow bridge.**

**Namaste, my friends**


	24. Chapter 23: Questionable Intentions

**I own only three pairs of shoes and they are all back -.- I do not own Pokemon. If I did, this would be a manga already... *Q***

* * *

Chapter 23: Questionable Intentions

I glanced over at the crippled raven-haired grunt. She was still blissfully unconscious.

I wiped my hands against my thighs, the stinging from the various cuts and bruises acquired from this damned fieldtrip starting to fade into a simple hum in the background rather than a full on assault to my senses. Wet dirt, sticky sun spore pollen, and crusty rust-colored blood flaked away as I rubbed my hands down the sides of my grass-stained shorts, smiling evilly to myself. We had _tried_to be civil with her with our first attempt at squeezing some info out of the chick, but the grunt had proved to be a bit of a bitch on top of being a potty-mouthed loser, and so I had to get a little _violent_with her. With a large stick.

It mostly involved me shoving questionably edible down her throat until she kicked me in the shin and I happily knocked her out. With a large stick.

Evil, yes I know, but satisfying none-the-less.

The vibrant forest had long ago calmed down, the nerve-wracking scuttling of bug feet being replaced by the serene silence of the night. The grasses and ferns had stilled, the forest only making the occasional clicks of a passing Pokémon. A cheeky sliver of a moon peered out from behind the plump masses of grey clouds circling it overhead, giving the jungle its enchanting glow back. The soft, healthy grasses of the clearing brushed against my ankles like Butterfree kisses and I felt strangely at peace in the midst of all this chaos this night had sprung upon us.

_"Oi."_

Thorn gave a little groan and pulled taunt another vine, effectively strapping the K.O.'d grunt to the underside of a nearby tree branch with the thick green tendrils. He wiped a trickle of sweat off his forehead, slithering down the thick base of the tree, and coiled up underneath her limp hanging head, waving his elongated tail teasingly through her drifting ebony stands of hair.

_"You think she'll be even angrier at us if I cut her hair to look like Burgh's?"_

I giggled, which came out much more evil-sounding than I had planned. I suppose getting scared shitless, watching your partner evolve, and then proceeding to bound and gag a bitch can make you a bit psycho. And spiteful. With a big stick.

I welcomed the stark waves of dark energy though; it was a refreshing change from being pissed off or freaked out of my mind or mushy in the feels area. If anything, it was an extra push to get the job done. _Hopefully allowing me to use my big stick again._

I tapped my moss-covered tree branch against my lightly bleeding kneecap wondering briefly if I was going to go through with it; the hair cutting, I mean. I still fully planned to torture her to my sadist heart's content, though it was awfully tempting to let him shear her rather lovely hair into an unrecognizable bush-mess of Burgh's own design as a bit of an appetizer. However, a smaller part of me was keeping the twisted, bone-lined and blood-splattered gate to my _much_more evil side blocked off from my grabby fingers.

_"Pardon me, Mina-isus Poketrainer-ieka, but if you're done making yourself a Yami-complex, we're burning moonlight here."_Thorn's characteristic sarcastic tone broke through the clearing, drawing my attention back to him. He was still sprawled under the grunt's suspended form, and was tickling her nose with what looked to be a poison oak leaf.

I tensed up at the sight of the leaf. _Burgh you bitch. I'm going to hit you with my big stick._ Somehow through this endeavor, I had stayed poison free, but that didn't discount the fact that the stuff _was there._My side still itched from earlier, but I wasn't too keen on stripping right here and checking myself over for pus-y blisters. No thank you.

But rather than continue my rant about what I was going to do with my big stick, I was drawn away once again from my rather disturbing thoughts as I sucked in a breath looking over Thorn, momentarily struck to silence upon looking over his new form. Evilness was replaced by pride as I beamed with motherly vanity for my newly-evolved partner: Thorn was now a proud, and equally-as-snarky-and-loud, Servine, complete with a slightly taller body, several new lethal-looking razor-edged leaves, and an even more bitter vengeance needing to be reeked on the world_. _

I grunted, smacking my branch against my hand. "I gotcha, I gotcha…."I smiled, which I'm sure couldn't be described as _'happy'_ or _'pleasant'_or _'smiley'_. I'd imagine about ten Lillipups died.

_"You know, you should really stop doing that. It's kinda freaky. And that's coming from me."_

"Shall I do the honors?"

Thorn wrinkled his nose, giving me a twitchy grimace at the psychotic smile still pasted to my face. _"Better do it quick before she starts throwing up over here. I think she's having a seizure… or maybe she's just itchy… should I tickle her again? But seriously, stop smiling like that. You'll give yourself nightmares again."_

"No need…" I reached over and tapped my victim on the head, with said smile still on my face, rousing her with a snort and a sputter. A rough-sounding cough racked her body and she shuttered as several of the materials I had shoved down her throat earlier came spitting out, including some purple tiny mushrooms I found. None of the stuff was poison as far as Thorn had told me; would it really be that bad to get _that_lucky?

Damn, I'm really that far gone.

A thin line of purple-tinged saliva was dripping down the girl's lips as she wiggled disorientated in her bonds. "Uh, where am I…?" she moaned drowsily.

"Boo."

Her grey-green eyes widened to saucers in sharp surprise in a way nobody except an anime character's ever could. Her teeth grinded into a visceral snarl as she made a jerky lunge for my face, which only ended with her whacking herself in the head with the face-mask from her knight's helmet. She wriggled and writhed like a lunatic under the influence of some wacky medicine, twisting this way and that in her comically blind position, spiting the most lavish of curse words I think I've ever had the pleasure of getting scraped across my ear drums.

"BITCH YOU LITTLE _*BEEP*! YOU SON OF A *BEEPING**BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEPING* *BEEP* I'M GOING TO TEAR YOUR *BEEP* OFF AND SHOVE THEM RIGHT UP YOUR *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* BEEP* *BEEP* AND THEN *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* BEEP* ON YOUR *BEEP* *BEEP* BEEP* WITH_*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEPING* *BEEP* IN THE *BEEP* *BEEP* BEEP* AND *BEEPING**BEEP* *BEEP* YOUR *BEEP* *BEEP* BEEP**BEEPING**BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEPING* *BEEP* SO THEN YOU'LL HAVE TO *BEEP* SIDEWAYS! *BEEP*!"

Her helmet was shaken from her head, to which it plummeted to the ground like an iron missile, Thorn barely edging aside just in time as it struck the ground in the spot where he had been previously laying.

_"Hello to you too."_Thorn grimaced from under the grunt. Her burning eyes flared suddenly from me to him, letting loose another few rounds of beep-worthy potty mouthing; to which Thorn just stared at her and only blinked when a wad of purple-tinted spit was loosed at his eye.

_"I like you too. Just tell me when and where."_

"FUCK YOU, YA GRASSY BASTARD-I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU JUST SAID!"

"HEY. HEY! Draw your attention back to your captor, and not her weed of a partner." I snapped, pulling both of their heads back in my direction. I tapped my stick on the ground, messing with a lumpy shape inside my vest pocket as I prepped myself for my villain monologue. "Ok now, so, crazy pants, care to spill the beans on your sicko team's whereabouts before I have to spill your brain innards all over the nice dirty floor?"

The grunt stiffened in her bonds, sneering at me like she was the one with the big stick and I was the one getting cozy with the tree. "Not on your life, bitch. I'm not a snitch." She wiggled around some more, making a few snappy chomps for her bindings, but only succeeding in biting her tongue.

"L'ull nvnr geth a thinh ouhha me." She snarled, sticking her nipped tongue out in both a display of defiance and as means to keep from biting her tongue again.

I tapped my big stick against my side again, clucking at her like every good super-villain before me has. "Well that's a shame, cuz' I really didn't want to have to do this buuuuuutttt…" I played around in my pocket some more, withdrawing a slick-topped red mushroom dotted with a few vivid orange spots. "But I might have to use this _ssuuuuuuper_rare mushroom on you, and I'll warn you now, I have no idea what it does." I smirked.

Her eyes narrowed to paper-cut slits "You wouldn't dare."

"Oh, wouldn't I?"

_"I know I would."_

"Pfft, I handled The Mushrooms before. And those were the kind you get in trouble for using. You're so bluffing."

"Am I?"

"Are you?"

_"Hey, you should let me cut her hair."_

"Should I?"

"Should you what?"

_"Foxy Boxes."_

"Should I….?"

"Are you?"

"Am I?"

"You can't."

"I can."

_"Trousers."_

"But you won't."

"But I shall."

"Will you?"

_"Limeade."_

"Watch me."

The grunt blinked her eyes hazily at me, sizing my threat up. We were now nose-to-nose, mystery mushroom dangling from my fingers teasingly in front of our eyes.

"You're a freakin' crazy-ass bitch, you know that?" the grunt muttered.

"I've been called worse." I quipped back. "So now, are you going to shell out the info, or are we taking another trip to Magic Mushroom Land?"

"Rrrrm…" the grunt scowled, still trying to size me up. Her eyes kept flickering to the mushroom, something that of a mix of pure fear and unadulterated loathing swirling in her eyes.

"I'll take my chances, you son of a *BEEPITY* *BEEP* *BEEP*." She finally sneered.

I _tsk-tsked_at her, shaking the mushroom like a finger.

_"Should we do it now?"_I asked Thorn with a grin.

_Thorn snapped his fingers. __"I don't see why not.__"_

"Well let's see what this does now, shall we?"

"Do your worst, bi-"

_"Baby you light up my world like nobody else; the way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed, but when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell, you don't know…Oh, oh…You don't know you're beautiful…"_

The repulsively cheery sound of poppy boy-band music rang through the clearing. My head jerked from the grunt's snarling face to search for the sound of the music before my eardrums imploded in upon themselves. The grunt gave a nervous wiggle, and I noticed the flash of a glowing screen deep within the lining of the wrinkled slip she wore under her chainmail. Digging through her pocket, I produced the ringing device, glaring at the laminated Smart Phone screen as the music continued to pour from its side speakers like a mini-horror show.

_"Everyone else in the room can see it…Everyone else but you…"_

"You disgust me." I hissed at her, rubbing my fingers over the screen in an effort to get it to unlock so I could silence the annoying sound of One Direction's voice. The key-guard screen was apparently one you have to slide your finger around through a bunch of circles in the right sequence in order for it to unlock. I pounded on the screen, all the while, Zayn's annoying voice kept pouring from the speakers.

"Goddammit, how do you turn this thing off?!"

_"That's what makes you beauti-"_Harry's voice was cut off with a ping. The call had gone to voice mail.

"Thank Arceus that's ov-"

_"Hey, Sheila, it's Matt. So… we're in trouble. Ends up the skull wasn't what we were looking for, and now we gotta ditch it 'fore the freaky Snivy girl shows up again. Gorm said if you're not back at the cliff entrance in fifteen, we're leaving without you."_The voicemail went dead, and the forest fell silent again.

I turned and grinned at the grunt again, a dripping smile plastered across my face. "Looks like I got a lead on your plans now. How about that?"

The grunt remained silent, her face now a contorted mask of embarrassment and a look that could only be described as 'I-totally-just peed- myself'.

_"Hey, Mina! Let's get a move on! We only got fifteen minutes before they split!"_Thorn crowed from the background, and I turned to see he had slithered off towards the trees again, pushing aside a plant and uncovering the continuation of the pebbly path we had initially started out on. He was trying to snap his fingers, but they just kept flapping around like leaves in the wind.

_"Darn you, fingers…"_

"HA! So you have nothing else you need from me. Let me down at once!" the grunt howled, twisting and turning in her bonds again and making the tree shake and bob under her weight. I pivoted slowly back around to look at her; giving her a short up-and-down while I contemplated what to do next.

"Nah." I grinned.

_"Plus another five dead Lillipups, now let's GO."_

"Wait, what?! You can't do this you *BEEPITY* *BEEP*. You're just going to leave me tied up here until I die?!" The grunt yelped, fear dominating her murky green eyes. She made a swipe at me with her foot, but it only got three inches away from her before it was abruptly stopped by her constraints. "*BEEP*!"

I gave her a pat. "Of course I'm not going to let you die…" I twined the severed stem of the mushroom through where the vines were thickest; giving the dark green straps a pop of much-needed color. You know you've really gone off the deep end when you think your prisoner's bondage needs interior decorating.

"I'm going to let the wildlife take care of you. If that mushroom really is edible, some Pokémon should find you and gnaw through it. You'll be free within a few hours… probably."

"You, just, you… YOU!" the grunt snarled. "Y-" she started again before I slapped her helmet back on her head.

"That oughta keep you warm."

I got a jumbled, echo-y reply of some sort that sounded vaguely along the lines of 'FBHK you.'

Grabbing my bag from where I had tossed it on the ground, I came up to Thorn and joined him at the start of the path, tightening my hat over my re-done ponytail. I swung my big stick over my shoulder.

"Ready?"

_"Yup."_

We took off down the path, feet crunching over pebbles in silence, save for the grunt's ghostly-sounding rant behind us. I picked at my healing cuts, musing to myself about how useful a big stick was going to be for bashing in grunt heads. Because I had the urge to bash grunt heads in. Badly.

_"We're not going to go back and actually get her, are we?"_Thorn asked with a mildly amused glance.

I snorted, "Of course not."

**OOOOOOOOO**

_Twitch twitch._

"Rrrrmm…"

I dug my nails into my side, scraping furiously over the bump that had started forming on me. The bump refused to budge, and seemed to only swell the more I picked and scratched at it. I pulled my hand away in spite, glancing at my red fingers, unsure if they were from rash or just from being used too much in the past few hours. I reached to scratch at the bump again, but was met with the pain of what was becoming a familiar torture.

"OW!"

I halted abruptly, bouncing on one foot as I brought the other one up to my hands in a floating half-Indian-style position. I glared at the ground, where a seemingly innocent circular chunk of concrete laid resting, rolling over like a fat beast in response to me running the front end of my right foot into it.

"Dammit…" I growled, rubbing at my toes with a twitching hand. I grimaced at the fleshy, red lines that decorated my hand, and was now pretty sure I had contacted _something _of the poison variety. I steadied my jerky hopping as another wave of devilish thoughts blew through my head about what I was going to do to Burgh after our little excursion was over.

I glanced down again at the rubble lying at my feet. It was covered with sage-colored moss and seemed to be breaking apart from water getting in its cracks and freezing; but mostly it just seemed _old._

I took another gander around the area we were walking through, and it seemed like there were chunky pieces of rubble everywhere. Cylindrical stone pieces rested on their sides tangled within the roots of the massive trees lining us on all sides, looking like slabs of slice-and-bake cookie dough someone had cut up but forgot to bake. All manner of dusty bits and pieces of old stone was spread about the path, some miniscule and smooth as pebbles from a river, and others large and coarse like the chunk I had ran my foot into.

What caused me to stop and think about all these seemingly unimportant observations was why all of these ruins were here in the first place; if you could even call the dilapidated lumps of rock that. The beginning of the path had only been surrounded by solid jungle, all trees and bushes and flowers and such; but ever since we took the hike through the _really_dense stuff where we met the grunt, it had seemed like the rubble was everywhere. Stacked up in blocks, cracking and falling apart, sitting in the middle of the path where certain people can trip over them; it really did seem like an old temple from some long-lost civilization had just up and crumbled here.

The near inaudible crunches in front of me fell silent. _"Hey, are you okay back there?"_

I cast my gaze upwards from the deceitfully innocent stone at my feet and was met with a dark glimmer of a single red eye; Thorn was standing sideways, glancing over at from several paces ahead, seeming to just have noticed I wasn't trailing behind.

I attempted to reply back, but I couldn't get my tongue to function; something about his words rubbed me the wrong way. The words themselves were fine, but the tone was all wrong. It was bereft of any emotion, of any real attachment to the words other than they were just coming out of his mouth. It wasn't even nonchalant, it just… nothing.

"Yeah… I'm fine." I eventually mumbled.

Thorn gave me a half blink, and turned on heel again to continue treading along the path, tail not so much as even swaying behind him. He walked stiff and controlled like he had been squished into a girdle or something. With a sigh, I gathered my splayed mind and continued after him, unconsciously stomping so hard on the ground to the point of making both of us jump every other step.

I couldn't help but fear I was overanalyzing things, but something about Thorn was bugging me; again. While the chilly attitude wasn't exactly _uncommon,_the cold shoulder definitely was. Even when he was pissy about one thing or another, he was _very_vocal about it, but it seemed like tonight he was nothing but tight-lipped about whatever was troubling him. He had refused to let me on to what was bugging him earlier before we ran into all the grunts, and now it seemed like he was even more on the defensive now. It kinda hurt; he was letting me hug him just a little while ago, and he seemed content too, but that just seemed like a far-off fantasy now. Something he shrugged off as simply as shedding his skin like the cold-blooded creature he was.

But even if his mind was shot, his body seemed to be doing just fine. His wounds had already started healing at an astonishing rate, without any medicine or aid from me at all. Thorn's side was still a little puffy, but all the blood had ceased spurting like a gory geyser and the ivy-green skin had started to knit itself back together, one scale at a time. The paralysis was still evident as he walked with a bit of a limp, but most of his rigidity was coming from his tensed up spine. I wanted to reach out and attempt to console him, but I chided myself for the mushiness and chose to play indifferent.

"Caught a scent of them at all?"

Thorn didn't even look over his shoulder. _"I have a faint whiff of them, but I'm not sure how new it is. We're down to only ten minutes before they bail, so we're gonna halfta hope the trail's fresh and we get lucky."_

"Hrmm."

It was still for all of about a second; there was a sudden mental lurch, and I was hit with a splitting headache that felt like I had been kick upside the head with a vicious roundhouse kick.

I couldn't help but feel a little set aback at my own mind's doing. I threatened to topple to the ground, making a jerky grab for my head as my feet threatened to give way under me; it felt just like when the nightmares were happening, like my skull was getting split down the middle and all my brain bits were swollen to the point of bursting. My spine tensed and my shoulders caved, my eyes sweeping nervously from side it side in case something was lurking in the shadows of the trees. I steadied myself with my big stick, leaning against it like an old man does with his own cane, waiting for the headache to worsen or for something to miraculously jump me.

To my surprise though, the reply didn't come from the real world, but from an entirely different source altogether; my conscious had waylaid me again.

_You really are a complete fool._

I felt myself cross my arms in real life, wrapping one arm around the stick to keep me up right as I readied myself to face the brunt of my overly-animated conscious yet again; which seems to have been happening quite a lot of the late.

_What are you doing? You're just pushing him away again._ It echoed to me. I swayed against my big stick, trying to gather my thoughts.

I glanced up from my feet, which I had unconsciously been staring at for the past few moments, and looked to Thorn's back; it was still ram-rod straight, and completely tensed. Thorn's arms didn't even swing at his sides, and it seemed like his only movement other than his feet was his nose, which was constantly twitching as it fought to pick out TP's scent from the considerable mess that was the forest that tried to muddle his senses. A scowl wedged itself on my face. _I told him I didn't need him, and I meant it._

_But you weren't taking him to the Pokémon center for his benefit, now were you?_

I cringed at my own savage thoughts. _He's the one who rejected me. If he wants nothing to do with me, then the feelings mutual… I…_I stopped to consider my thoughts carefully; just in case the lurking emotion in them happened to break the hold I had on my mind and fight its way out of my mouth and into the real world. The words were stuck on my tongue, trying to claw their way out, but I chomped down on them and tried to finish my thought. _I don't want to hurt him like I hurt Eevee…_

_But that's not an entirely selfish wish though, is it?_

This time I didn't even have to spare the time to think before answering. _No… no its not._

"Hey. HEY! Weed face! Come over 'ere for a sec…. I just remembered something…" I called up to Thorn's twitching form. He gave me an unreadable look over his shoulder, but still did a stilted half-turn and tip-toed his way back over to me. He came right up to my feet, practically stepping on my toes as he came up to me.

_"Whaa?"_

I stuck a hand in my pink shoulder bag, rummaging around until I found the only thing Burgh had been good for so far. "Here, stick your arms out like this-" I pantomimed a strung up scarecrow's crucified stance ", and close your eyes." Thorn miraculously did as he was told, not even teasing me with a sassy remark about trying to be the dominant one in our relationship or whatever; he took a few steps back, stretched out his tiny arms, closed his eyes and waited. I twisted the spray nozzle on the bottle on, holding my own breath as I spritzed Thorn down with the Super Potion. It sprayed just like Windex cleaner, but had a medicinal scent instead of a chemically one.

I pulled the trigger till the potion was dry, and allowed myself a breath of air. "There, that oughta make you feel a bit better. It's no Full Restore, but it's what we got."

Thorn wrinkled his nose again, but did seem to be a bit less tense. His chest filled up with an easy breath and for a moment, I could have sworn he was letting himself relax.

_"It'll do."_

'It'll do.' Not 'Thank you', not 'Leave me alone', not even 'Frig off'. Just _'It'll do.'_

Thorn turned again and apparently made the decision for us to keep moving, because within a few moments, we were hiking through the trees and rubble once more. The debris was more spaced out around here, and seemed to be in much smaller clusters than it had before, only seemingly normal-sized chunks and slabs now adorned our path and would have blended in with the forest seamlessly if only they were brown or grey rather than their strange off-white color. _We must be finally getting out of the really dense forest,_I mused to myself.

The silence stretched thick as we continued our journey along the path, our crunches falling in sync so that only one noise was heard instead of two. Trees almost seemed to sleep in the light of the moon, branches only swaying a bit every now and again like a person twitching in their sleep; not a single Pokémon called out or crossed our path at all, but somehow I was felt feeling watched despite the aloneness I felt seeping into my gut. Thorn had slowed down a bit, and was now only a few paces ahead, but each step was labored and uncomfortable to watch. His limp was worse, and every breath seemed to be a struggle to even heave; still he continued on at a constant pace, maroon eyes trained forward on whatever agenda he had for us. _The potion hadn't done that much in the end anyways._

I focused my attention on everything except him. I dragged my stick along the ground, watching the shallow rivets in the dirt it made trailing off behind us and disappearing into the distance. The moonlight was still bright all around, shining a silver spotlight on our path as I followed Thorn blindly through the forest. I drew continuous loops in the dirt, watching them swirl onward like a never-ending Caterpie's midsection. I dug the stick into a particularly hard section of dirt, causing the stick to splinter with a sharp _CRRRK_and snap in half with a shower of wood slivers. I dared a look at the stiff figure of my Servine up ahead, but he hadn't even twitched at the noise. With an inaudible growl, I flung my arm backwards and launched the stick into a nearby bush. A Pokémon skittered frantically from the bush, dashing across the path in a scrap of claws and nervous chattering; I didn't care enough to turn around to see if it was Slender Man or a Pokémon or even TP.

_Ping._

A noise chimed from the depths of my bag.

For a moment I just thought it was my Xtranseiver ringing, but after a quick dive into the bag, I came up with the last thing that had been on my mind: my Pokedex. The screen was beeping again, emitting a shrill buzzing as it started to reconvene its scattered colors and form what looked like to be a Pokedex entry; or _ten._The screen still had that horrible crack running down the side of it from Whirlipede, but I could at least distinguish between text and color on the screen now.

With a careful hand, I brought the machine up to my face, placing a finger on the scroll panel and flipping through all the additional Pokedex entries I had gained; Servine, Whirlipede, Zoura, Venipede, Sewaddle, Watchog, Gurdurr, Leavanny, Scolipede, and Pansage entries now blinked on the screen, little exclamation marks next to their icons bouncing up and down to proclaim them updated.

I _ooh'd_ at the screen, momentarily lost in all the new information. It'd been like… a week plus since I checked the thing, so I was pretty enthralled with my new findings. My finger hovered over the Zoura entry, about to select it, when a loud snap was heard and I looked up.

_" Ow."_

Thorn had taken his turn to kick an unsuspecting rock, and was now looking aggravatedly at a squarish chunk of stone on the ground, his itty left foot starting to swell a bruised purple. He must have felt my eyes on him, as he flicked his eyes up to me with a sore glare. _"What?"_

He didn't wait for me to reply, and turned on tail and kept walking along; _like I was even going to reply_, I thought sorely to myself. I honestly had nothing to say; I couldn't even scowl at him without hinting some type of emotion, and the last time I checked, I was indifferent.

But feigning flippant was absolutely killing me; utterly destroying my egging conscious. I knew I was going to crack soon; I wanted to be angry, I wanted to fight it, but I couldn't ignore him. Not even Pokedex entries were not enough to keep me occupied from thoughts of him.

It was so strange; something about Thorn always made me want to try and help him, to guide him to the best of my ability. But the truth was that would be unfair to him. No matter how close I _actually_wanted someone to be, arm's length seemed to be the best I could do. It had always been one of my (many) flaws: I wanted things to be close to me, but could never manage to accomplish that.

And right now I wanted nothing more than to just hold Thorn's hand.

He drove me insane; he made me curse like a sailor; he made me want to throw his ass out a window and get the hell outta dodge, but at the same time, _I_wanted to stay. To see what he'd grow into, sort of like how a mother nurtures her infant to a toddler, and a toddler to a child, and a child to a teenager, and then that teenager into an adult. It's said that every woman has a natural maternal nature that just comes with being a girl, but I always thought I was the exception to the rule; playing house-wife to mom and Gavin was a necessity at the time, but I always felt like I was shoving my foot into a shoe two sizes too small; the fit was painful and left horrid blisters that would mar my skin for as long as I dared to repeat the cycle. But Thorn… it was just so complicated; it was like forcing yourself through your routine shots: it hurt more often than not, but the relief between the periods of agony were blissful and worth it. So did it make sense to keep enduring the pain for those moments of serene tranquility? I know that the next shot was coming, but living in the moment and taking it as it came, the good and the bad?

Was that the truth to Thorn and I's relationship? Something as fragile and superficial as that was the truth I was going to either embrace or continue to run from? Was this what having a Pokémon was really all about? Taking the good with the bad, and caring even when it hurts so much you'd rather scream "FUCK IT!" and drop everything and run?

_'Why is caring so hard?'_

It was a question so few asked, or even dared to wonder themselves; are people just supposed to know about how to care for others? And about how much it hurts when that care is taken and forced into unrecognizable shapes until the point you're not sure why it even mattered in the first place? I had asked that question once, but my mother couldn't give me a straight answer. So I asked my dad. I asked professor Juniper. I asked Gavin. No one seemed to understand what I really wanted to know, so one day I answered it myself. I answered it the day that Rekikio left, the day Bianca told me that she loved Cheren, the day my mother said she was tired of living like she was not alive.

_'Because indifference hurts much more, both you and the ones around you, and any amount of pain would never be worth it to be indifferent.'_

The indifference that was killing me now was just was painful as the tears I had shed on that day two years ago; the last time I let myself have a goddamn good try, and it was something I didn't want to fake ever again. I needed to make a resolution to myself; I wouldn't keep Thorn is he wasn't happy. The pain we shared was better than nothing, and nothing just as bad as the silence that seemed to stretched between our hearts right now. And if our path's parted, and we went our separate ways, I wouldn't allow myself the tears because what truly mattered to me was that he was happy.

And that wasn't an entirely selfish wish at all.

The thought was freeing; it was like a rope of salvation hanging in the middle of the whirlpool that was my mind, and it provided me some hope of getting out of this situation with my sanity intact. This rope would save me; this crooked picture I had been pasted into for Arceus-knows-how-long, I was going to figure it out, bit by bit as long as it takes to straighten this mess I've thrown together and called my life, and it started with this.

_Wouldn't N be so proud of me…?_The thought made me happier than I had been in a considerably long time.

I felt something sticky all over my hands, and I took a peak down at my fingers, grimacing at the yellowish tinge they had taken on. The remains of a leaf I had apparently swiped from a bush or whatever were fluttering away from between my fingers, a few of the smaller leaf-bits sticking to the gluey sap plastered to my fingers. I watched them flutter and swirl in the dry night breeze as they tumbled out of sight, and my eyes fell back on Thorn.

We were both still walking in sync, but both of our crunches had grown quieter, leaving me unsettled again. Thorn's back was the only part of him I could see, and I concluded it was best to leave it as it was right now. I'd deal with the whole 'thing' _after_we beat the living daylights out of the grunts we were currently stalking.

I almost stopped in my tracks when I saw it. A grin broke out over my face with excitement all of a sudden; there was a light up ahead. It looked to be firelight or something, but it was bright and basically a beacon for 'Hey! There are some people over here and you should come beat them up!'. I gripped my stick harder and smiled devilishly. Those grunts really were stupider than I thought they were; the first rule about being sneaky… you don't light a fire. That's how you get killed; at least, that's how it was in every survival story I'd ever read in my life.

I quickened my pace, taking a silent leap past Thorn and landing on a pile of leaves at the base of the clearing where it seemed the fire way coming from; the leaves didn't crunch too much thankfully, but even if they had, the crackles from the fire would have drowned them out. I dared a peak through the bush, looking around for any sign of the chainmail brigade, but all I saw was a single shadow pressed up against a tree. I couldn't tell anything about it from the cast it made against the trees, but I really didn't care; five guesses said it was an idiot that got separated from the Plasma Pack.

Thorn wormed himself up next to me, scrambling through a bush so that he could get a look at the clearing too. I felt a hand steady itself on me, but I shook it off as gently as I could and started to make my way through the bush. I think Thorn tried to tell me something, but I was chuckling under my breath, so I couldn't hear him; playing whack-a-mole with a few violent idiots was once again on my mind.

I didn't take the subtle approach; hell, I didn't even think about it. I just crashed right through the bush and ran right up to the fire, big stick in hand and ready to swing. "Hello. My name is Mina Hylden. You guys are a bunch of assholes. Prepare to be hit over the head with a large stick."

A pair of composed mahogany eyes shot down my own cobalt ones. "Hi there."

I have never had the urge to face-palm myself so much.

It was a friggin' Pokémon Ranger- not a grunt. She was just sitting on a tree stump, digging a stick about the same size as mine into the ground, eyeing me with only a slightly ruffled gaze. She was dressed in the ranger gear, a tight black, cap-sleeved dress; burnt orange leather belt with several hip pockets; and knee-high black boots. Her matching burnt orange vest and hat were lying a few feet away on another tree stump, along with a half-empty bag of coconut marshmellows.

She blinked at me, reaching up to scratch at her collar bone, which had a trailing of tiny, swirled black stars tattooed around it. "Want a marshmellow or som-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"

I was twitching involuntarily, my whole body itching up and down and threatening to melt as my gaze fell to Thorn for all of a second before I felt bile rising up in my throat and I turned and bolted.

_"Whaa? It's just a baby Sewaddle._ _It was on your side."_Thorn gave me a pouty face, puckering his lip slightly as he waved around the offending _thing_at my sprinting back.

All I could think wasn't really much of anything, but could roughly be translated to this:

_RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRRUNURNUNRURNURNURNRUNURN! _

_THATTHINGWASONMETHATTHINGWASONMETHATTHINGWASONMETH ATTHINGWASONMETHATTHINGWASONME!_

_RUN RUN RU-_"Ack!"

I tripped over a log.

I fell sprawled out in a patch of itchy grass, whole body still quivering and shaking from having a frikin' _bug_on me. It had been nipping at me the whole time, crawling under my shirt at some point, and I just kept scratching at it, making it bite me harder. _I was going to be EATEN,_I whined to myself in girlish withdrawal.

I was about to forfeit to my freak-out and just curl up in a ball, but the grass was starting to itch me up all over, so I pushed myself up on an elbow and glared around the clearing. There were no other bug types around, nor anything else of the living variety; but I wasn't going to count out zombies yet. With as much as a horror movie the night's been, I wouldn't be surprised if some zombies started Thriller-ing it up out there.

But it wasn't a zombie that caught my attention as I attempted to get up. It was… I mean… it-

_Is that-?_

"What is hell?"

* * *

**Hey, Pokegirl, hanging with the usual suspects.**

**Mina-"Meh. Nothing really interestings going on..."**

**Thorn-"This is an announcement from your faverite neighborhood Serperior:** **check** **out Pokegirl's new story, The Black Hero of Ideals, which is actually a tie-in to this story in addition to being a self-contained story. There is indeed a link between the two stories, and if you can figure it out, we will love you forever. At leas Pokegirl will... I'm indifferent to all you."**

**ACK! *slaps hand over Thorn's mouth* HE DOES NOT MEAN THAT! WE LOVE ALL OF YOU!**

**Anyways sorry for the LONG wait... it's summer now, and I will have more time to write! Huzzah!**


	25. Chapter 24: Choices

**Chapter 24: Choices**

He was warm all over. The warmth was liquid and swirling, encompassing him completely in this sizeable space. His eyes were closed, but he knew exactly what was surrounding him.

It was whatever he wanted it to be.

But he didn't care to see. He was just content to rest. Mina hadn't needed him yet, and worrying his tail off wasn't going to solve anything, so he surrendered to waiting and decided to cop a nap.

What else was there to do inside a pokeball?

His ears pricked all of a sudden. It wasn't a noise that startled him though; it was a feeling, more like. Though he knew that if he opened his eyes, nothing would still be there. Actually not nothing, but whatever he wanted it to be, which wouldn't provide any help in this situation. The workings of his ball wouldn't aid him in anything pertaining to the real world; maybe that was why a Pokémon could lose touch with the real world if they spent all their time cooped up in their ball. They could just build their own ideal worlds within their balls, and nothing in the real world would matter to them anymore. Even if their trainer abused them, they would never really notice because their real world was in here.

Eevee smiled to himself; if only he worked like that. He knew exactly what his ball would show if he opened his eyes. It'd be absolutely nothing, probably not even a color; it would show him his worse fear. Nothing more, nothing less. Even if he focused all his energy into just creating the simplest of objects, his mind always refused and refluxed the emptiness back into him. The thing about pokeballs was that the 'ideal' environment for a Pokémon wasn't just created the moment the Pokémon was caught or sealed inside; the ball's occupier had to fill the space itself. This could prove a problem to the more slower-witted varieties, but it shouldn't have posed a problem for Eevee, who thought of himself was a simple, basic-is-best sort of Pokémon; and yet, his mind did not work well enough to supply him with anything other than a place to sleep.

So, sleep it more often than not was his pastime.

But now… it was different. Eevee longed to open his eyes. The 'feeling' was there again, but it didn't feel like anything he had ever experienced before. Being summoned from his ball was like having a fishing hook caught in your navel; you were swung around widely into tight turns and then you surfaced and reformed on the other side; trying to form things with your mind into your habitat was like plunging your head into warm water, you felt melty for a second and then you adjusted and felt normal again.

This… was… strange, unlike any of those feelings at all. Yes, the pull to come out was there, but he knew he wasn't being summoned by Mina.

The 'feeling' had strung its way into his body now, and it was almost like it was trying to reach deep inside him, searching, searching for something. Searching for a lost memory, or feeling, or anything that could be connected to this feeling. Eevee wasn't apprehensive about the feeling's invasiveness at all though; he was genuinely interested why he was being so thoroughly searched.

But then he found it.

A single strand of green was all that was in his mind now. He hadn't thought it up himself, it had just _appeared_. And now it was trailing out of him now, stretching into the fathomless reaches of his ball. He still longed to open his eyes, _but just not yet, _he told himself. He tried to get a sense of the feeling, his turn to search for any connection he had with it. The green strand gave nothing away with thoughts though, it was all through sensations. He felt tingles all over, like his cells were coming alive and trying to remember how to work properly.

Eevee's eyes sprung open, but it was not nothingness that met his amber eyes. The green strand was trailing off into the black reaches of his ball, and even seemed to go _farther_than that. _It was forming a path! _Eevee thought startled to himself.

_Stairs… I must walk up them… _he was being drawn along the path, his paws shimmering as they touched down over and over on the glinting green path as he followed its trail wherever it has leading him. The strand swirled and shimmered along with him as he broke into a run up the green path; it felt strangely alive, like the very essence of every living thing that ever was was guiding him up into the upper reaches of his ball; it all felt so _verdant._

_There's a wall up there…? _He thought breathless to himself, still running up the stairs. _This was-!_

_CHPOP!_

He broke though the white barrier and was momentarily blinded by something silvery. Eevee was forced to shut his eyes at the strain of it, squishing up his face and grinding his teeth together. As he collapsed to the ground in shock, a soft whisper of grass brushed past his toes, and he could smell the scents of hundreds of Pokémon and plants around him, and the wispy hint of someone in particular dominated his senses. He shivered slightly.

_Don't… open… just yet… _he begged his eyes. He was still afraid. This had never happened before. He wasn't ready yet.

"Eevee?" A smell suddenly asked.

_Erm…no…!_

"Eevee! What the hell…? Did I do that?" The smell was confused now; he could sense it. But under that, the scent of something much more dark was looming underneath; rotting, festering, and overloading his sense of smell with its abrasiveness.

He had no choice. He opened his eyes.

The moonlight that greeted him was just as abrasive as the scent of his trainer's dark aura, but with all of his senses restored, both dulled to a reasonable level and he could function just fine. The grass and dust continued to lick at his feet, momentarily drawing his attention to the world around him rather than the trailing green strand, wherever it had disappeared to.

They were in a field surrounded on all sides by thick undergrowth, the temperate rainforest plants making up the Pinwheel Forest brushing against one another in a symphony of things lush and bright and alive in the moonlight. The ground was soft and fertile, curling under his paws with a delightful squish; it reminded him of the time he dug up Mina's uncle's garden because he knew the carrots were ready to be harvested. Eevee liked carrots; he was the only one of his brothers that did. Mike had been mad at him at first, but forgave him when he told him that he was only trying to help; Mike was very compassionate like that. Eevee liked that; it was a respectable quality.

Momentarily lost in him memories, he didn't notice Mina coming up to him and running a hand down the length of his back. His butt hitched up instinctively as she scratched the base of his tail at the lower part of his back, tail flicking straight up and wiggling happily. He blinked for a moment before turning back to his trainer and meeting her befuddled blue gaze.

She cracked a crooked smile, running her hand down the rest of his tail before settling her arms on the knee she was kneeling on. "Eevee…? Did you do that… yourself?" she asked crunching her eyebrows over her gleaming dark blue eyes; they seemed even darker than normal, her face turned away from the moon. Unfamiliar scratches and bruises were all dark purple in the shadows and ran up and down her arms, decorating her entire being; most of which were not bandaged and still lightly seeping. It was all he could do to blink and try to comprehend this situation.

It all had come back to him; the green strand. He had followed it up through his ball and miraculously had been able to break the seal that held him inside by _himself_. He closed his eyes all of a sudden, daring to plunge himself into the nothingness that was his mind in search for the strand. His vision gone, all the other senses took over again, the rustling of the trees and leaves around him crescendoing to a fever pitch; his nose twitched longingly, picking up everything it could in an effort to restore his environment to his mind now that his sight had been turned off; but his sense of touch had overridden every other sensation, drowning them out until they were just nondescript hums in the background. The grass under his paws seemed to grow closer to him with every passing second, their roots trying to seep into him, but for why, he was uncertain.

But he wasn't scared anymore.

The green thread was back. It was still there.

He felt his paws moving forward, dragging him into a 180 turn and pulling him forward. He still didn't open his eyes. He didn't want this to fade until he was undoubtedly sure of what it was. He would contend with the uncertainty of the unknown until then.

"Yo… Eevee?" A voiced echoed in the background; his trainer had become nothing but a scent again, something familiarly scented, but also something so unfamiliar it was something all its own; his senses dulled into the darkness and then disappeared completely, only faint hints of Mina remaining. Still he continued forward, the magically pull he was experiencing almost tangible, it was so strong.

He knew he was being drawn towards something; that living, tingly feeling was looming everywhere. The cells in his paws closest to the ground were going haywire, each step making them even more alive. Every atom in his body was bouncing rapidly in place now, and he couldn't stop it. Just like the green strand, it was familiar to him, like his body knew what it was doing but couldn't remember exactly what. The green strand held the answer; it beckoned him closer, growing shorter with each step until it diminished completely into the fabric of space and Eevee was forced to open his unknowing eyes again.

It was a rock. A big, green covered rock. It was covered in healthy, verdant moss from the very base all the way up to the top, the moss changing colors several times as it climbed up the monumental thing. Emerald green moss clung close to the base; asparagus hued moss covered the majority of it, circling it from the fringes of the emerald colored lichens all the way up to the crown of olive drab moss forming a cap at its peak. The whole seemed to amplify every bit of natural energy around it, giving it a green glow. At least, that's what Eevee saw.

"What the hell? It's just a friggin' rock…" Mina mumbled from several feet away. She hadn't followed him closer and seemed to be keeping her distance from the green rock; Eevee wasn't surprised for some reason.

Up close, the magical pull of the rock was almost too much to deny. His body was in an absolute frenzy, every cell, molecule, and hair in him bouncing rapidly like boiling water. The energy flowed through him as powerful as a river, trying to make him succumb to its green power; all he needed was to _touch_ it, and the river would flow into him. But was this _right?_

Eevee squinted at it; his body seemed to know what was going on, but he sure didn't. The sensation was familiar… but… it wasn't _right. _He didn't want it. The feelings were all_there_, but they just didn't belong.

His paw was hovering over a crack on the rock's mossy surface, toes centimeters away from touching the moss coating. He had been reaching out, he realized, completely lost in the pull of this strange object and not even noticing the act he was about to commit. His pulse was quick, his body aching and heaving, desperate for the change_; could he deny the natural instincts of being a Pokémon? _He sweated the question.

"Eevee-?"

He sniffed; his whole being was still going nuts, swarming and swirling within itself like it was desperately trying to erode itself away so it could be reformed anew. But it just wasn't right; the puzzle piece fit, but it was the wrong puzzle. Eevee drew his paw away. The power diminished immediately, not even fading away, being blow away like a stiff breeze had come and it uplifted it away from him, smacking its wrist and chastising it for being so forward. Eevee could breathe in relief again.

"Eevee?" the voice and accompanying scent was right next to him now. His chin was lifted up and backwards, so he was bending over and looking right into Mina's eyes. The scruffy fur on his head mixed with her own dark hair and seemed to disappear into his fur, and they were one being conjoined at the hair. "Hey, are you ok? That was a little freaky right there…"

Eevee blinked at her, realizing how close their faces were; he could smell her even better now, but the darkness that was lingering before was gone. She smelled differently now; more gentle, something like care. She was smiling, but he knew she was a little set aback by the situation, and that smiled was only the surface of what she was feeling underneath: startled, a bit nervous, but foremost and upmost, hurting. He didn't know if it was his fault, but he wanted to right it anyway.

His tongue flicked out and he gently licked her on the nose, earning a squeak and minor recoil from her and a little snicker from the back of his throat. Mina thumped him gently on the nose, giving him a half-closed eyed smirk and picking herself up from the ground.

"I'll take that as a yes, ya little mutt." She grinned, tickling him behind his ears with affection; she was teasing him, but she did seem a little more at ease.

_"Yes. I am fine."_

"Hmph…"

_"I'm okay too, thank you all for worrying _so _much." _Another familiar scent approached and spoke, slithering through the grasses with a very amused, red look on his face. Thorn came right up to them, puckering his mouth at Mina and casting a neutral glance at Eevee.

_"Short stuff; what goes on?" _Thorn asked with a mild smile.

Eevee shrugged, giving his friend an earnest grin in return. _"I'm alright. But you're not that much taller than me." _He sniffed at the Servine. Thorn had evolved; he noticed. Thorn now stood at least an astute foot taller than he was, but his hands shrunken in the process and the result was comical. Eevee resolved to make sure to tease Thorn about it; no doubt Thorn would have his own arsenal of witty comebacks to defend with, which was part of what made him so much fun. Eevee liked being friends with him; just like he enjoyed carrots. People were put off by lots of the things he liked, but he liked them regardless of what others thought. Just like he liked Mina despite her flaws; he liked everything about both her and her quirky Servine. He just liked everything.

Eevee was that one piece, that one fragment of the full picture, that could literally fit _anywhere. _He got along with most everybody, liked just about everything about just about everybody; he could fit into all kinds of families and situations with no trouble at all; he could always find the _good _in _everything._

But something about this peculiar duo unit made him want to try even harder; to find everything out about them, both good and bad, and take it for all it was forth. But it wasn't an obligation, it was a choice; they were all puzzle pieces, floating about until they found something to latch on to. Sometimes the pieces were part of the same picture; sometimes not. They were on the latter category: all different pieces of pictures that somehow found a way to fit together, and Eevee had latched on just like he had with so many others before; he was the worn, connecting piece that was all spaces, that somehow on every angle, someone could attach to him and make themselves whole. Now it was the opposite. He was the one connecting to someone, finding his turn to be complete. He liked the challenge. He just _liked everything._

"Woa… we gotta go, chillin's. We're down to eight minutes 'fore TP bails…" Mina interrupted his thoughts, casting a glance down at her two Pokémon. "So, reunion over, let's skedaddle…"

Eevee nodded dutifully, Thorn giving a shrug. Together, the trio traipsed off into the trees, leaving the rock and its mysterious powers behind.

_A piece that didn't quite fit; but not a completely worthless piece at all._

**OOOOOOOOO**

The threesome continued their trek through the forest.

Thorn had taken the lead, nose twitching nonstop as he tried to scout out the grunts they were looking for; Mina filled Eevee in as they walked, taking carful time to adequately express her extreme dislike of the bushy-haired one named Burgh and the episode with the grunt. Thorn would interject his own two cents in from time to time, earning sharp glares from their trainer, which he shrugged off without a care.

_"And then the ranger was like 'These are not the grunts you a looking for' and then at first I was like… and then I was like, and then Mina went all like… 'AAAAAAAAH' and I then I was like-"_

"Thorn that didn't happen." Mina cut him off gruffly.

Thorn hardly bristled at the comment. _"You weren't there. You _wouldn't _knooooooooow."_

Mina's eye twitched, which had Eevee first panicking that she had something in her eye but then realized with somewhat relief that it was an involuntary reaction to Thorn's snark. _He did have that ability to rub her up the wrong way…_ Eevee mused moodily to himself.

"Well I do know you ripped a _bug _off my side and waved it around like a showgirl's fan, weed. You of all _things _should know not to pull shit like that."

_"Well perhaps I'm not that inclined to pay attention to you every second of the day."_

"Well perhaps you're just not as smart as you make yourself out to be."

_"And well perhaps that is the truth."_

"Indeed."

_"Fine by me."_

"Like I care."

_"You will not get the last word in this argument."_

"If I put you in your ball, I will."

_"Indeed."_

"Fine by me."

_"Like I care."_

"But I do."

They both shot burning glances at each other before turning roughly away and glaring in opposite directions; Thorn focused on the front, Mina turned all the way around and started walking backwards. It was an effective way to kill the conversation.

Eevee padded silently along with Thorn, glancing over his shoulder every few seconds to look at Mina's back. She just kept swaying on, speed-walking in reverse like someone had hit the rewind button on the real-life remote control. Thorn was just as chill, creeping along with a bit of a limp to jar his efforts, though he was well composed. Eevee was forced in between the turned stalwarts, the awkward middle to this strange sandwich. _A connecting piece between two rather rash and prideful hotheads._

Eevee longed to take a pause and knead at his temples with his paws; their fights always left him stressed out, but there was an all-new war waging right now. This had been brooding for a long time, there was no doubt. Whereas he had been just contently musing about the happiness he found in this dysfunctional family, Eevee was now groaning inwardly about the sheer stupidity this family also possessed; and Eevee did not like to use that word. But, there really was no other way to describe it. It was all just _stupid._

He sniffed; the uneasiness was so thick it even pervaded the air around them. The stench made his ears flatten and his heart beat numbly. He may fear nothingness, but fighting and frigid temperaments were also up there in the in the _'Do Not Like'_ category, a list that was remarkably short. This made him unhappy; but he was the peacemaker betwixt the two fools, as it had been proven in the past, and so it was his duty to fix them.

But this job of sorts was something else, in fact, that he also liked.

_"Bum bum."_

Two heads snapped up; one with a narrowed-eyed red gaze, and then other with a sputter as she tripped over another rock. Eevee quieted at this exact second, letting to two look around bewilderedly as he glanced casually at a drifting Cottonee overhead. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the two glancing confused between the three of them, Mina snorting and turning away, walking forwards this time, and Thorn hurling a glob of spit at the ground before continuing. Eevee suppressed a giggle and puckered his lips again.

_"Bum bum,"_

Mina and Thorn's heads were up again and glancing wildly from side to side. Eevee grinned to himself, watching the two's momentarily befuddled glances before they sunk back into their sour frowns with pride. This wasn't the way the commercial had gone originally, but if he could get them to sing along, he wouldn't have to start a rendition of "I'm a ninja, I'm a horny ninja" which when he originally saw it with Mina's uncle, he asked what 'horny' meant, and Mike had gone deathly silent with the strangest of looks on his face. He still didn't know what horny meant, but it must have been funny to warrant such a comical response.

_"Bum,"_

Mina twitched. Thorn just shuttered. Neither of them moved.

_"Bum,"_

Both heads flew out to the shadows of the forest surrounding them. No one looked down; no one suspected it was him. He smiled again.

_"Bum,"_

The silence settled.

_"Bum,"_

Thorn sniffed. Eevee made sure to draw this pause out for a good minute and a half.

_"Bum bum. Ay ay ay-"_

Thorn literally jumped up about a foot in the air this time; he flew into the air, face contorted in a half-psychotic screech as he was in free fall for all of two nanoseconds before suddenly lashing out at a large rock a few feet over with a vine and making it explode in a shower of rocky bits. The rock bits scattered everywhere, Eevee taking a pause to shield his face from them as they descended to the ground. When he looked up again, Thorn was still looking kinda insane, a weird wiggly, open-mouthed grin on his face as he turned, his head swiveling to turn his entire body. He staggered on.

_"It was that rock… yeah, it was the rock…." _Thorn echoed to himself, not looking back.

Eevee was panicking a bit inside; there was no rock smashing in the commercial; they had been in a car. And everyone was joining in. _Maybe I should make car noises… _he fuddled his brow and focused hard. He summoned a coughing noise from the back of his throat in an effort to sound like an engine, followed by the whine of a turning wheel and the screech of breaks.

This was getting extremely awkward.

_"Shrshr," _Eevee took a moment from car noises to cough up the next part of the song, imitating the slushie cup one of the kids had been shaking. It sounded more like a sputtering vacuum cleaner than anything, and he was losing his breath.

_"Brooo-oo-oo-oo-"_

"What on Arceus's green earth is that?!" a voice exploded from a nearby bush, startling everyone this time. Eevee covered his mouth so suddenly, he got a paw-full of dirt smushed into his mouth as well, which he had to hold back from sputtering back out. Mina froze in her tracks, one leg still up in the air, teetering on one foot as she tried to stay absolutely still. Thorn froze as well, his dark eyes sweeping slowly over to the direction of the voice.

Before Eevee could start to panic, which he was doing on the inside, Mina has swooped them all up, depositing them all in a large fern and peeping a head over the top of it as she glanced out to see who appeared. Eevee rubbed his cheek with a paw, grimacing at the scratch he had gotten on his cheek from landing on Thorn's back upon being dumped in the plant. The sharp leaves on his back hadn't cut him deep, but it still stung; Eevee failed attempt to make them feel better ending in a conundrum stung more though.

_"Owie…"_

_"I got cut up by a sword-you have no right to bitch."_

"Team Plasma…"

The two words uttered from their trainer's mouth sobered them both instantly. Thorn wormed his way from under Eevee's bum and stuck his face in the fern, only so that his pointed nose was all that was visible of him. Eevee peered around Mina's legs; nose twitching as he tried to figure out what was going on.

The Team Plasma member was wearing the exact same costume the others had been wearing that day back at Wellspring Cave where Eevee had first encountered them, only this time, the grunt appeared to be alone. He was moving cautiously along the gravel path the three of them had been treading on only moments ago, eyes sweeping back and forth scanning the area. This grunt had his helmet off, and the hood to his chainmail resting on his shoulders, and he seemed to be a little off-guard. Eevee studied him carefully; he looked to be about eighteen or nineteen, had black hair that was mostly straight until it curled inward slightly at the ends, and fell to his mid-neck; the boy had dull brown eyes, and other than that, didn't seem to out of the ordinary. Eevee sniffed the air a bit, trying to recognize the boy.

_He's not from Wellspring Cave- _Eevee reached the conclusion. He breathed a sigh of relief; the grunts from the cave had seemed extremely hostile, pulling their swords on teenagers and Pokémon. The fact that this boy wasn't part of that incident gave some hope to Eevee for some reason; maybe there wouldn't been any need for violence-or tying up- this time.

"Hh…hurk!"

_"Whaa-!"_

The attack was swift; Mina had been in the bush one second, the next she was kicking the grunt in the back and barreling him over. They handed on the ground with a mutual_oof! _sending rocks scattering and making Eevee cringe.

Thorn popped up from the bush, skirting over to Mina's side without a look back. Eevee frowned as he felt the hairs on his back spike up a good inch; this was going to end badly for the grunt-he could just feel it. Still, he dashed out of the brush and sat at Mina's side as she picked herself up off the ground and flipped the grunt over so that she could see his face.

She climbed up on his chest, straddling his torso, and grabbed him by the collar. "Talk, bastard-!" she slammed his head into the ground and held him back up again, holding onto his costume so hard her knuckles were turning white. The look on her face was murderous, but not as psychotic as he would've thought it might have been.

The grunt coughed a bit, a half-grin forming on his face. "So you've made it this far, Sni- oh, Servine girl." The grunt didn't sound very malevolent, more like a teenage boy poking fun at his mom. He tried to rise to his elbows, but Mina dropped his head again, letting it bounce a minute before grabbing him by the collar again.

"You're _staaaaaalling," _she sing-songed to his face. "Just tell me where the other grunts are at before I have to beat it out of you."

The grunt got a hand up to rub his jaw. "Somehow, I don't think you're joking."

Mina's eye twitched. "Imma gonna break your nose now-"

"Hey, hey-! Cool it, I'll tell you if you… beat me in a Pokémon battle!" the grunt held his hands up, trying to work his way out from under Mina, to which she just rammed his head into the ground again. Eevee sucked in a little gasp, biting back the words he wanted to spit out for the grunt; he sensed something about him that he wasn't as bad as some of the others were.

Thorn suddenly appeared over the grunt head, dangling something over his eyes with a huge grin plastered on his pointy face. _"Oh, with these Pokémon?" _the grunt's belt hung from his tiny grasp, the three balls attached to the side of it just millimeters from the boy's nose.

_"Servine got your tongue?"_

_"Thorn, is that really necessary-?" _Eevee frantically tried to reason; this really wasn't needed, the grunt would have just told them if Mina beat him in a battle, which would prove to be an easy feat without the need for petty theft.

The grunt stopped wiggling, sighing as he visibly deflated. He looked he genuinely worried for his Pokémon. "You got me there. Fine I'll tell you…" the grunt exhaled, eyes flickering to his belt dangling in front of him. "The rest of us are stationed a coupla hundred meters that way-" he jerked his elbow north of them "-in the clearing right next to the cliff base. Ok, then?" he finished with a grimace.

Mina picked herself up off of him, stepping over his arm to join Thorn on the right side of his head. "You better be telling the truth, bub, or I'm really going to break your nose." She smacked her palm with a balled-up fist, looking dead serious.

The freed grunt held his hands up in surrender. "Honest! I was just following orders back there…"

Mina made another grab for him, but Eevee swept in front of her at the last second, causing her to grab his furry chest instead of the grunt. His heart was beating loudly in his chest, and he blinked his watery eyes and tried to calm the nervousness that was filling him from head to toe. He knew Mina wouldn't hurt him, but he couldn't say the same for the grunt; but, somewhere deep inside, he knew the grunt was telling the truth, he could just smell it, a warm, honest feeling without anything to hide.

_"Mina! He's telling the truth, let's just leave him and hurry, we're running out of time!" _Eevee pleaded, staring right into her eyes. Beside her, Thorn stiffened, but didn't interject.

Mina's mouth puckered, and she stared down the grunt. "Hmmph. You believe him?" and then after a moment she sighed, calming down and taking in a deep breath. "Well you are a better judge of character than I am so… I'll trust _you."_

Eevee felt himself smiling, the nervousness and tense feelings evaporating. He could sense the grunt was staring at his back, but he kept his eyes on his trainer. _"Thank you."_

The grunt fidgeted, sighing nervously as she glanced back up to Mina. "I was only here to buy time. So if you don't step lively, they're just gonna get away…" Eevee turned around to look at the grunt, and they met eyes briefly, a silent and confused thank-you sent from the grunt to Eevee received with a smile. He knew the grunt couldn't understand him, but he felt the gratitude wholly.

"Shit, he's right! We're down to five before they split." Mina yelped, immediately turning and starting jogging away from the grunt, Thorn trailing behind her. Eevee dug his paws into the ground to catch up, running as fast as he could in an effort to join his speeding trainer before she could sprint away.

The was a scuffle from behind, drawing Eevee's ears behind him. "Wait! My Pokémon-can I have them back?!" the grunt hollered from behind, sounding actually frightful to Eevee. Eevee stopped for a moment, turning back to glance at the stricken grunt, who had risen up to a kneeling now, holding his pants up as they threatened to droop.

_Oh yeah, we have his belt, _Eevee thought with an exasperated moan.

Mina stopped but didn't turn around for a good few seconds, Thorn looking up at her from her side, still holding the belt of pokeballs. Mina cocked her hip to the side, almost like she was giving this some serious thought.

"I don't think so." She turned, flashing a dangerous smile in the boy's direction. "You're just gonna force them to do more bad stuff like the shit you guys pulled tonight and back at Wellspring cave, and I don't think that's very cool. You don't deserve them back."

Eevee had never seen her so adamant about something before, or so cold. _It was frightening_. His determined face fell as he looked at the steely look on his trainer's face; he wanted to whimper, but told himself to keep strong. This was no different from back at the library… from when Mina asked him if he would stay with her. He had been the one in the position she was in now, and _he_ gave _himself_ back to the one who had wronged him; because he knew better. More than just his own feelings and wants were part of the equation, and you can't be so narrow-minded to think your feelings are the only ones that matter.

He had sensed sincerity in the grunt, and he was going to stand by him.

In a few strides, he was at Mina's feet, dashing past her and snatching the belt with his teeth from Thorn's grasp, turning on a dime and sprinting back to the fallen grunt. Eevee came up to his knees, taking a step up onto his lap with a single paw and dropping the belt into his lap. Eevee took a step back, staring at the boy's face with determination.

_"I believe in second chances." _He said simply. He knew the words wouldn't reach the grunt, but he had spoken them anyway, and he knew they'd at least mean something. He turned on his heels and dashed back to Mina.

He came up to her feet, looking straight into her blazed cobalt blue eyes with his own deep amber ones. He didn't feel remorse for disobeying his trainer's orders; he just felt relieved he had had the guts to do it; and he didn't fear Mina. She had given her word to him, and he knew she had heard what he had said.

_"I believe in second chances." _He repeated, firm and adamant as he was before. He needed the words to reach _her; _this was the exact same charity he had preformed for her in the library, a second chance to one who had done wrong in the past. The past was the past, and you can't change it just as much as you can't run from it. She had to understand this. She _needed _to understand this.

Mina just sighed; her hardened face softened, and her high-strung feelings seemed to fall. She gave a shrug, offering a small smile as she regarded her Pokémon. He couldn't tell what she was thinking from the look on her face, but he hoped his words had hit home. "You have such a bleeding heart."

Eevee smiled back; it was a compliment. His own nerves diminished and he felt joyously energetic all of a sudden. _"Let's go!" _he yelped, taking a running leap through Mina's legs and dashing on in the direction the grunt had pointed them, feeling the strength that had been previously been wavering returning and spurring him on. He rushed in a bush, finding the gravel path unfolding in front of him and he sprinted on, leaving behind all the animosity and fear behind him. He felt free; he liked it.

Mina and Thorn's crunches soon joined his own as they all thundered down the path, the moon glowing above them aiding in their frenzied hunt. He felt like he was running blindly without anyone else to lead him, but Mina's soon took the lead, ushering them in a slightly different angle as she spotted a path and veered right.

"Through here!" she shouted, taking a turn off through a fallen log, ducking her head as she dashed through the slightly concave space. Thorn and Eevee dashed through without hindrance, springing out on the opposite side and sprinting to catch up to their trainer's charging form. Spiked bushes and the sharp fingers of jutting tree branches tried to reach out at them as they printed past, but none of them could touch the trio; Thorn spun out of the way with a leafy flourish; Mina dodged and skidded around them, daring to crash through huge tangles of bushes and kicking over small trees with triumph; Eevee just ran through it all, feeling the undeniable freedom of his family's teamwork spurring him on. He got numerous cuts and scratches from his reckless trampling, but he didn't feel any of them.

They took another sharp turn, trampling over a chunk of worn rubble on their way over; Eevee dared a look back, but it was nothing but a pentagon-shaped rock, and turned his vision forward again. Mina was taking another leap into the air, bouncing off of rounded green shape sitting on the ground, hardly pausing to land before speeding off in the direction of another fallen log. Thorn bounced off the top of the green bump as well, landing with a chirp of laughter as he slithered off after Mina. Eevee finally took his turn to bound off of it, spreading out his feet as he flew for the oncoming ground, feeling the huge smile on his face. He liked it all so much it felt like he could just keep sailing through the air forever, all incased in this exact moment.

The green bump took its turn to leap up as well at that exact moment.

The top of the bulbous shape struck Eevee in the underbelly, disrupting his flight with a sharp pain. He let out a gasp as the ground was suddenly much closer than it had been a second ago, only this time he was about to face plant into it. He covered his nose with his paws as terror filled him up again, closing his eyes with the oncoming impact.

_This was just like that time when Mike told me about when he jumped off the swings in first grade and broke both of his arms when he landed and he couldn't do anything and I-! _Eevee was frantic, more frantic than he had been a minute ago with the grunt. His heart stopped, his breath stopped, only his mind still churning as it spat out manner of nonsensical banter that only made his fear worse. The fall going so fast, he could hardly register anything other than fear and a sharp rock that seemed to have set its sights on the middle of his forehead.

_I don't want to-!_

Eevee was suddenly motionless; He wasn't falling. He bounced slightly as he felt something strangely solid underneath him: a basket. A basket made of woven vines. Not the rocky ground.

It took him a moment to register he had stopped plummeting to the ground, opening his eyes one at a time. He sucked in a breath or relief; he was okay. Alive. Not broken.

He attempted to roll over and get up, but a shot of agony ripped up his left foreleg and he collapsed back onto his side. He tried to rise again, but ended up whimpering as he found he had landed on his paw during the fall after all. He had fallen on his back exiting from the summersault that he had spiraled into upon getting struck in his midsection, crushing a paw that he had flung out in terror upon landing. It didn't hurt _too _bad, he realized as he gave it an experimental lick. He felt the world underneath him moving again, and basket below began unraveling, and he found himself being gently placed on the ground, becoming sedentary again.

Thorn retracted his vines back underneath his stiff leafy collar, giving a small sigh of relief at seeing him with all four paws on the ground again. He crossed his small arms across his chest, which ended up looking like he was just holding his own hand, letting his soft smile melt away and shot Eevee a cross look. He turned sharply on one foot, tapping Eevee stiffly on the nose with the side of his tail. Its razor-edge brushed only his cheek, but it didn't cut Eevee.

_"Baka." _He muttered, tail twitching.

"Hey, I was blending into the wilderness there!"

Thorn and Eevee both jumped at the sudden outburst of the voice, Thorn falling flat on his butt and Eevee trampling over his hurt paw again. He ended up tripping over his tail and rolling over onto his back, a look a surprise undoubtedly on his face for the umpteenth time this evening. He rolled over to his side, ignoring the flaming pain clawing at the inside of his paw, and glanced up at the dark shape that had materialized above him.

A tall blond man wearing the rounded green thing on his head was hunched in front of them, an equally-as-Eevee's-own terrified look on his face and his forest green eyes wide. He was wearing a burnt orange ensemble similar to the one Mina had described on the female ranger she had encountered earlier, only he was wearing a pair of baggy orange pants and ankle-high boots in contrast and clutching a pair of beaten, night-vision binoculars in his fist. He whipped the green thing off his head, exposing his orange hat-topped head with a growl.

"You three can't pass through here! I need you to-!"

But the ranger didn't get to finish his sentence; Mina was there again, sweeping the two of them into her arms and taking a backwards leap away from the livid ranger, landing on her toes with only a slight wobble. She crushed them hard against her chest as she regained her balance, and Eevee could feel a jaunty rib poking out from her side jabbing into his hindquarters; he started to involuntary whimper as his paw was being shoved against Mina's side, but at the last second, Mina pulled his paw away and rested it more comfortably against her shoulder. Eevee gaped at her.

Mostly because _she was doing a one-handed aerial cartwheel through the air _while doing this.

He didn't even have the breath to mutter 'Yolo'; the sight was that startling.

"Take a number, dude; you're not the first one to come barking for a battle-!" Mina landed with a low grunt, skidding on one hand and flipping over to one foot and rising to a standing, both Eevee and Thorn quivering against her chest now. "Get lost, ranger dude!" she sang, taking another leap for the fallen log they had been headed for moments ago._She sounded almost giddy, disobeying authority like that,_ Eevee thought agape despite the food churning in his stomach.

"Wait, no! That's not it-!"

Mina blew him a raspberry as she ducked under a puff of moss covering the log, going into another dizzying cartwheel to top it off. The grunt disappeared from view a moment later, but then again, so did everything else all within that same second.

_Gurp- I think I'm gonna faint… _Eevee thought drunkenly to himself; the whole word was spinning now. Was the sky always moss-covered? Colors and sounds were blurry and indistinct, and Eevee felt for sure this was what a hangover feels like.

_"Mina-"_

There was a sudden skid of pebbles and a low moan. Then everything fell silent. There wasn't a single breath to be heard, not a single heartbeat, even the world around them had seemed to fall silent. The leaves didn't rustle, and the wind didn't even blow.

At least that was the way it seemed; Eevee couldn't see anything. Or smell anything. Or hear anything for that matter. In the rapid process of skidding, stopping, and silence, Eevee and Thorn had become a jumble of limbs and tails buried within Mina's midsection, nothing visible except for the small spaces of dark air they had for breathing, clutched up against Mina's chest.

Eevee tried to wiggle, but Mina's grip on him was tight; he couldn't move. He told himself not to panic, and to his surprise, he wasn't. The silence wasn't even scaring him; the unknown wasn't looming, waiting for a crevice to seep itself into. He was just aware of Mina's warmth, and her steadily returning heartbeat.

Only her heartbeat wasn't so steady; it was pounding. Running. _Running for its life._

_"Oh, Arceus, no…" _he could just barely hear Thorn mumble. His tone was terrified; worried beyond what Eevee had thought was even possible for cool, collected, expressionless Thorn. _Now _he was panicking. He was really scared now. Thorn's dead tone had been the catalyst, but now his own wild mind was running with the fear streaking through him now.

_"Mi-na-?!" _he tried to cough out, but got a mouthful of tank top instead. He wiggled more feverishly this time; _what's going on out there?!_

_"KKKKKKKKKKRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRKKKKKKKKHH!"_

Something screamed.

_"MINA!"_

Something else screamed; Eevee wasn't sure who it was this time; it may have been him; it may have been Thorn; it may have been the ranger; it may have been his imagination.

The Scolipede in front of him was not his imagination.

_"KKKKKKKKKKRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRKKKKKKKKHH-KK!" _the huge beast's scream was cut off abruptly this time, and it fell to the ground with a fierce struggle, lashing out in fear with its multi-poison-tipped barbs. Piles of dust and rubble went flying through the air, blanketing all three of them in a cloud of filth and panic. Eevee felt his lungs burning from the dust, and it was getting hard to see with how much grit was accumulating in his eyes. He coughed again, and he heard the echo of another cry in the background of his thoughts, but he ignored it as the salty bits in his eyes began to burn.

_"DAMMIT IDIOT MOVE!"_

* * *

**'Ello luves, Pokegirl and company here-**

**Thorn-"Yodels."**

**Mina-"Konnichiwa."**

**Eevee-*eats a cookie***

**N-"Yep."**

**So we gots some of Eevee-s POV-lemme know how you guys liked that BTW-and some more feels.. so... yeah. This and the previous chapter were once one but it was WAY to long, so I did some edits.. yup.**

**PF conclusion next time-'bout fecking time.**


	26. Chapter 25: A Miracle Seed

**I own a bottle of fuzzy nail polish that reminds me of a rug from the 80's. I do not own Pokemon or the brand of nail polish.**

**Please note, this is still in Eevee's POV.**

* * *

Chapter 25: A Miracle Seed's Promise

_"DAMMIT IDIOT MOVE!"_

The screech pierced the clearing like an arrow, shattering whatever was left of Eevee's sense of surroundings. All he could hear were the reverberations of the frantic shriek pounding in his ears, bouncing sharply off his ear drums like a pinball off the breakers of an arcade game. His vision spun, but the Scolipede's oncoming body kept falling right for the threesome standing stock still in the middle of its path.

_"Does 'Dammit Idiot Move!' not apply to you? Move your ass!"_

The echoes in his ears threatened to betray him again as he strained to understand the garbled speech of whoever was talking; _Thorn? Is it Thorn...?_ _Was it really-?!_

Eevee was suddenly aware he was falling, collapsing in a heap on top of his trainer's breast bone; her rapidly beating chest swamped his senses and he felt his own heart pounding alone with hers. It would have been a nice sound- a nice moment- if there wasn't a thrashing Scolipede FIVE FEET AWAY.

Eevee's tail was being tugged up and he jerked around to see Thorn hauling him up by the fluffy extension. Thorn rolled him over, pushing him over onto the ground and giving him an urgent look over his shoulder as he tried to revive their shaken trainer; Eevee gaped at him for a moment before comprehending Thorn's silent message. Eevee shook himself, scraping to a standing and taking a charge forward.

_'Hold off the Scolipede'_

It was Thorn's message.

The Scolipede was attempting to roll over onto its own four legs, but it's stiff back plates were preventing it from actually accomplishing the task; Eevee thought he was safe for a moment before a projectile blob of purplish liquid was shot from its mouth- he took a flying leap for cover and succeeded in narrowly avoiding the poisonous liquid. Rolling over in the patch of leaves, Eevee found his bearings again, rising for a second attempt at standing against the massive beast. But he didn't get the chance.

His feet were slept from underneath him, blown right away with the green and pink blur that jetted past him.

The blur was really nothing more- just an indecipherable shape of what looked like pink and green within a whirlwind of flying leaves. Whatever it was, it was skillfully handing the vast network of swirling and darting leaves, the flakes of foliage hiding any distinguishing details the creature might have possessed. Eevee was dazzled into a stupor, and he could do nothing but look on at the crescent-shaped leaves that accompanied the speeding creature, watching them shoot out an intervals and speeds incomprehensible to the mind. The leaves were like a strobe light, slowing everything down and making the images jump like a staticy TV.

The whirlwind erupted with another call- a Pokémon's call.

_RRRRIIIHHH!_

Eevee's world flashed. He was no longer dazzled. He was haunted, shaken by the shrill call.

He knew it.

He knew the call.

He _remembered_the call.

_It had to be that-!_

"SHIT!"

It was Mina. She grabbed him by the midsection and hoisted him into her arms, where he became tangled in with Thorn. Eevee scraped for a bearing, still stupefied by the haunting call; he claws met skin but he was still in a horror shaken trance. His paws felt damp when they danced away from the patch of skin he had been grappling for for reassurance. _What is that? What was that?!_He was breathing hard, the anxiety and fear building up in his chest; he felt his body start to pound all over, like when he was using a move... the move Return. The power flooded through his entire being, the warm pink-clouded feelings starting to dampen the hysteria in his gut. _Yes… protect yourself... protect from-!_

A sharp whine of pain in his paw suddenly shattered the rays of power he was trying to summon, splintering his concentration; he tried to pay it no mind, but he was getting hysterical again. Nothing was making sense anymore; why was the creature here? Was it real? Was any of this real? Was he still in his Pokeball and none of this existed? Why...? _Scratch, scratch for something-something; something was here?! _Why _why why why why why why?!_

"EEVEE! Hold yourself together!"

Arms tightened around his midsection, sending another tether of pain shooting down to his paw, but he got a second to think. Mina... she was holding him. She was still there. Something was here! It was real! This was all real- he had to collect his thoughts... he had to help!

He felt himself pulling out of her encircling arms and the power welling up within him again. The power ran up his spine and down to his paws and streaked across his stomach to where it was all gathering in his gut- all the power drawn from his desires to help collecting, swirling and blending as his confidence and awareness grew with their rising power levels. He _would_help!

Only then he was being dragged back again.

"Don't be a hero you idiot! RUN!" Mina screamed right in his ear, throwing him out of her arms as she suddenly shot forward. Eevee flew to the forest floor, the sudden firmness beneath his paws shocking him out of his daze. His injured paw screamed out in pain again, and he face planted into the swirling grasses- narrowly avoiding a pile of the discarded crescent leaves of the creature. He abruptly pushed himself to his feet, shoving the pain in his paw aside and sweeping the clearing for Mina.

Mina's back was already disappearing into the moon-colored brush as she frantically scrambled away, not even daring a look back at the fearsome Scolipede, who was already righting itself, Thorn at her heels- or rather, she didn't risk a look back at _Eevee._

_"KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKRK!"_The anger in the beast's cry could not be denied and another ripple of fear spiked Eevee. _No... he wasn't being abandoned… no he wasn't going to get attacked!_The fear in his own mind blocked out everything around him; he _had _to make a run for it. He scrambled to get his paws underneath him again, and once he did he shot off like a bullet, jumping and trampling through the undergrowth hardly even noticing what he was blaring past until one of those things got under his legs and he was flailing through the air again.

"Fuck! Eevee, are you alright?!" Mina was screeching again. _Oohh... __he moaned dizzily;_he had tripped over her. His head spun a bit as he glanced over his shoulder: Mina had become tangled in what appeared to be a trap of some sort, her legs ensnared within a winding rope that was tethered to a thick-trunked tree of some sort. She had been scrapping to get a hold on the sharp branch that was inches away from Eevee's face when he had come barreling through, and he had tripped over her outstretched arm. "Oh my god, Eevee! Say something!"

He gulped. The pointy stick was _right in his face._RIGHT. FRICKIN. THERE. Whatever came out from his lips was pure instinct talking. _"Um... holy crap, holy crap, I almost just got impaled on a twig?"_Really. It was right there. He sucked in a breath and the twig listed a bit in his direction. He tried again and dared a blink, an eyelash brushed against the cruelly spiked end of the stick; he could've sworn he nearly fainted.

_"Well, ain't we all just peachy..."_A cynical voice deadpanned from the shadows of a nearby tree. Eevee risked a glace up, and lo and behold, there Thorn was, dangling by his tail, upside-down, entrapped by another rope. Eevee didn't even try to stifle a giggle at the sight of Thorn waving in the breeze like a ham hock- it was funny! In the midst of all this chaos, he found a moment of joy. Thorn didn't seem to find much humor in it though.

_"Bloody fluffing hilarious, now get me do-"_

The trees shook with a call behind them; a call Eevee was sure would haunt his nightmares. It was the Scolipede. It was coming; the oncoming smashing of everything in sight was the clear indicator. Trees in the distance were shaking, and the squawks of whatever flying-types were still in the area filled the air as they took wing to the sky to get away from the devastating creature.

Kinda like_ they_ should be.

Eevee flung himself up, sprinting for Mina's side as he crawled over her to get to the rope around her legs. He clamped his jaws around it, and grinded down on the rope with all his might. It tasted like dirt and sandpaper, and the fraying edges of it tickled the back of his throat, but he persevered, jerking his head and hearing the rope sever with a satisfying _snap! _Mina immediately kicked off the remainder of the sheared bindings, climbing to her feet and snatching up the stick she had been reaching for moments ago. Eevee danced out of her was as she dashed for Thorn, cranking her arm back and spearing through the rope binding the Servine to the tree. The moment he was free from the rope, Thorn completed a contorted front flip, effectively righting himself and landing on his pointed feet primly on the ground.

Another roar shook in the distance, Eevee's head accompanied by Mina and Thorn's all snapping in the noise's direction. It definitely sounded closer now, a flowering bush not twenty feet from the clearing crumbling to the ground in defeat with a flourish of purplish pollen another scare factor of the Scolipede's eminent arrival.

_"We were leaving?" _Thorn snipped over his shoulder.

"Freakin' run!" Mina screeched, the sound not at all lost within the noisy chaos surrounding them. Eevee definitely didn't need to be told twice. As a unit, all three of them took off into the forest, only Mina seeming to have enough sense left to lead them somewhere- or maybe it was just hysteria talking again. Eevee honestly hoped it was the former.

The forest flew by as Eevee tried to keep a coherent thought running through his head; it was proving to be more difficult than he was intending. He decided to keep his mind on putting one foot in front of the other, the pounding of his feet racing all the way up his leg from his paws to his heart, where the organ seemed to sync itself with them in an effort to keep Eevee from losing his mind entirely.

Thorn had taken a leap from the ground, and was now perched on Mina's shoulder, where they seemed to be arguing. Normally this in and of itself would have been both normal and unsettling to Eevee, but he was straining to catch some tidbit of the conversation; he had to know where they were going. He just had too.

_"We're looking for cliffs, idiot!" _Thorn snapped from his position right above Mina's ear, his clawed fingers dug into the denim of her vest as he tried to keep a literal grip and yell at her at the same time.

"Well, I haven't seen any yet!" Their trainer yelped back breathlessly.

_"They have to be around here-"_

_"Cliffs!" _Eevee felt himself bursting out with as he suddenly caught the rocky peaks of what had to be the only elevated land south of Victory Road. The tops were hardly distinguishable from the rest of the spangled night sky in the distance, but they were not covered with the lighted pinpricks of stars, so they had to be the cliffs! His heart leap with joy as Mina threw him a smile over her shoulder-and it sunk again when she was suddenly engulfed in a flash of a bush.

His heart nearly jumped out of his chest when the bush struck out again with its pale arms and snatched Thorn and Eevee into its embrace-and settled again when he found himself rushing through the forest once again in Mina's arms. They were making a beeline for the outcropping of cliffs Eevee had glanced at out over the trees, the wind bouncing off Eevee's fur as he stared head-on into the swirling forest. He only wished that the berating wind would pound away the teeming worry in his gut as it had the fur around his face; he sensed something very unsettling was about to happen, a feeling completely unwilling to be shaken away.

They broke though the tree line in a matter of minutes, the dimly lit tree canopy rolling back to reveal a star-freckled sky and a towering rise of taupe rock face rising into the nebulous oblivion. They were starting to slow down, a huge smile plastered on Mina's face as she whipped the dangling locks of sweaty dark brown hair from her face. She took another step forward, crunching over a particularly dry stick and making it crack horribly, though she hardly seemed to notice.

"Fuckin' yeah, this has gotta be the place! The ranger lady told Thorn that there was an outpost up here we could talk to the other rangers about fixin' Thorn and handling TP-"

"OH."

Mina blinked. Thorn blinked. Eevee blinked. The grunt that they had just caught trying to bury the hulking mass of ancient bone in the black muck of a mud puddle blinked.

_"Fuckin' oh, more like it." _Thorn deadpanned.

"Oh? OH!" Mina spat, her previously joyful face remastered into a furious scowl as she stormed into the clearing, stomping up to about five feet away from the stupefied grunt. "You freakin' _knew _we were coming after you, and all you can say it 'OH' ya freakin' bastard?!"

From his position in Mina's arms, Eevee could see close-up now that the 'bastard'-Eevee felt so bad cussing, but it wasn't really cussing if that was all he could call him, right?- in question was blond-headed man that looked to be in his twenties and had a bad case of the five o'clock shadow. The grunt had flat out dropped the shovel he had mid-way stuck in the ground from where he had been shoving piles of dense mud over the Dragon head, and looked very, very surprised.

"A-a pursuer? This is the kid everyone was worried about-? Heh, well if it can't be helped…" The grunt spoke, starting sounding very unsure of himself but gaining his confidence back with each word as he seemed somewhat calmer at the prospect of taking on a sixteen-year-old girl rather than the likely International Police agent he was expecting; _If only he knew- _Eevee though miserably to himself.

Mina's eyes narrowed as she saw the grunt begin to reach inside a leather hip pouch on his side, a grin bursting out on her face as she comprehended what he was meaning."If what you're askin' for is a battle, dumbass, then you got it!" Mina snorted as she cracked a hand against her palm, and the rib digging into Eevee's thigh shifted slightly; it was poking him even worse now. "Thorn! Eevee! Get to it!"

Her arms tightened and released, and Eevee found himself back on the forest floor, bearing his teeth next to Thorn as they both stared down the grunt as he pulled his own three pokeballs-_wait three?! _Eevee suddenly became very nervous; Lenora had had three Pokémon, but each one had been more powerful than the last! _What if they were overpowered?!_

"Patrats, go!" The grunt called out, tossing the balls into the air where they exploded with a flash of white light before touching down and filling out the forms of the two rodents. Both were ram-rod straight, tails up and teeth gashing as their beady little orange eyes flashed over Eevee and Thorn. They chattered to each other in some fast-paced Pokémon speak neither Eevee or Thorn could recognize.

_"More of these freakin' bimbos-" _Thorn muttered.

"Patrats-Tackle!"

With another snort and a scuffle, both Patrats launched themselves into the air, pushing their feet out first to which seemed to be aiming for Eevee and Thorns' heads; without looking needing to look, Eevee executed a tuck and roll, spiraling right under the oncoming Patrat's feet and scrambling up on the other side. Closing his eyes he ran his head full force into the back of the Patrat, bowling it over and sending it rolling. Eevee look a moment to breathe as eyes darted left to see if Thorn had evaded the attack as well, only to see Thorn was already about three steps ahead of him.

_"Yoink~" _Thorn had slithered out from under his own attacking Patrat, ducking into the shadow of another of those strange green bumps that had ambushed them earlier, and had suddenly just appeared on the other side of one of the rodents, slamming his side into its back and sending it flying.

"Thorn-Vine Whip! Eevee- use Return on that one!" Mina directed, pointing each of them off at their own targets.

"Patrats, Bite!"

_"Pa-raaaaaaaaaaa?!" _A Patrat took a lunge for Eevee, clamping its talon-sharp teeth around his back foreleg and shaking-before Eevee fired him off. Swirling around, Eevee bulldozed the stunned Patrat over, the flickering pink sparkles left from the attack settling in the air for a second before Eevee was ducking his head as another form came crashing through them and into view.

Thorn had apparently grabbed the other Patrat by the tail-or so Eevee could assume by the bruises forming at the base of it- and had twirled it around over his head and crashed it into all manner of things before finally flinging it away to join its partner in the Patrat Pile.

"All right you two! Finish up with Leaf Tornado and Return!" Mina hollered, punching the air in front of her enthusiastically for their win. Eevee corralled all the power inside of him, feeling light from the tip of his tail to the tip of his toes, and with the assurance of Thorn and his own emotions with him, they fired their attacks in sync, powerful rays of pink light and countless numbers of swirling leaves mixing into the right combination to assure them victory; and Eevee had never felt more right himself-and he knew he absolutely liked it.

The Patrat Pile blew sky-high and was airborne for a matter of seconds before plummeting to a heap at the defeated grunt's muddy boots. He had gone entirely pale, even his five o'clock shadow going a dreary shade of We-Just-Kicked-Your-Tuckus white. It was not a flattering color to say the least in Eevee's opinion.

_"POFs down!" _Thorn grinned smugly. Eevee felt himself nodding as he reached over for a high five, getting a vine _thwacked _lightly against his paw in return.

"What are you doing, fellow subject of the king?!" a cracked and nasally voice suddenly sounded from the literal left field of Eevee's hearing. He jumped as thin, hunched man emerged from behind a rather sorry-looking thicket of dried-up midget trees, holding up the bunched ends of the olive green cloak he wore in his wrinkled fingers. His slippers were completely soaked through, and Eevee could smell the foul scents of a bog emanating from them all the way from over here. The man's rounded hat was edging its way off his head, but he paid it no regard as he sourly plucked his way through the black muck littering the torn-up clearing thanks to the blond grunt's digging. Behind him, a group of about sixteen ragged-looking grunts were following close behind, each looking more dreary than the last.

"Gah! This pitiful excuse for a mission is ending in quite-" He only then just seemed to have noticed the trio, a momentarily shocked face expertly masked by a wiry mustache and a furrowed brow.

"Ah… so you found us." He concluded after a moment. The grunts behind him snapped their heads up and began to rustle nervously upon catching sight of Mina, one holding onto her mouth with a red-drenched glove in particular.

Mina scoffed. "I'd say I did,"

_"Who the heck's this cripple?" _Thorn snipped, nabbing the words right out of Eevee's mind-though he certainly wouldn't have used the word 'cripple'; that just wasn't polite.

"Master Gorm-!" The grunt muttered through gritted teeth as he returned his Pokémon to their balls from under the safety of his cloak, like hiding the failure would somehow lesson the royal whooping he was about to get from this man who was quite apparent to have some power. "I was in the middle of burying the skull as you ordered, when I was interrupted by this runt!" he rushedly explained.

"What's up?" Mina deadpanned with a wave as the man called 'Gorm' looked their way.

"She beat me in a battle and then you showed up and- so… um… what now?" The grunt questioned, his voice dropping an octave as he finished bringing 'Gorm' up-to-date on the situation. He was nervously casting his eyes back and forth between Mina and 'Gorm', and it wasn't quite apparent who he was frightened of more.

"Well right now, you're an idiot." Gorm's voice cracked as he swatted the man upside the head with the back of his hand, making his cloak ripple like a fallen drapery.

"So the cripple's name is Gorm," Mina chirped, raising and eyebrow as she looked over the two.

The frozen grunt seemed to catch back up with himself, grabbing the discarded shovel again with a livid look on his red face, pointing it out like a spear in their direction and huffing, "Hold your tongue, brat! This is Gorm of the Seven Sages, and respected nobleman of our faithful king!"

Mina snickered. "You mean a big baddie wearing a dress like senior big baddie Ghetesis- - and I could tell all of this just by that horrendous get-up you pride yourselves in wearing, grandpa. Oh, and it was awful nice of you to sic your crazy-ass bug on us."

Gorm's face had been turning all kinds of red at the disgracing of his fashion sense (Eevee had to admit, the ridiculous outfit did look an awful lot like a Snuggie he saw on a thing called an 'infomercial' once), but he seemed to reset at the last comment. "I beg your pardon?"

Mina's face tightened. "The repulsive, berserk Scolipede you ding-bats set up to catch us;I know you guys were aware we were here and so you set your disgusting bug on us." She spat the venom in her words so forcefully it made Eevee flinch. He was nervous all of s sudden; _why… is she so divergent to bug-types?_

"Missy, you have no-"

"Ooh, what do I spy with my little eyeeeeee? An important-looooooooooking guy!" a chipper voice chirped from behind a bush. Eevee turned, and to his surprise, a very giddy Burgh paraded out from the bush, hands in his pockets and a goofy grin on his face despite his narrowed eyes. "Peak-a-boo; I see… you." He waved a finger at the grunt.

It was then at that moment when another figure jumped from the brush, only this one was much larger and seemed much, much more angry. "Burgh, you ninny, there you are! No one was response so I can to check it out-oh." Lenora started with a high-pitched voice but ended in a very tensed tone. "You are the delinquents who stole my dragon skull! Tell me who you are at once!" she demanded furiously.

"He's one of the head freaks at TP," Mina shouted to Lenora, who gave her a raised eyebrow in befuddlement; Eevee and Thorn exchanged looks before glancing back at the train wreck in front of them.

The 'Gorm' Man swept up his cloak and let if flutter around him, looking like what Eevee could only describe as the superhero Golbat Man-like."I_ am Gorm of the Seven Sages. Ghetesis,__another of the seven sages, will liberate Pokémon with words alone!__As of now, the remainder of the Seven Sages have ordered their compatriots to take Pokémon with full force! But the odds are a little against us of now…" Gorm shot each of the trainers in a clearing a smoldering hate-filled glare before he spoke his next words carefully, handling them like an new Pokémon egg about to hatch that he only had intentions to smash to pieces on the floor._

"To you, the malevolent Servine girl, the Bug Pokémon user Burgh, and the Normal Pokémon user Lenora, I say..."

"Wait, wait, wait-" Mina suddenly interrupted. She turned stiffly to Burgh, eyes full of liquid fire. "You use… bug-types…? Burgh… I think I'm going to kill you with that chopstick now-"

"That is exactly what I mean!" Gorm suddenly exploded, cutting her off midsentence. "You malevolent, disrespectful, horrific girl! You have no moral code for how you speak of and act towards your precious Pokémon!" It was Mina's turn to flinch now, but he continued, "We have no idea what you mean by 'the repulsive Scolipede you set on us', because we have nothing to do with enslaving wild Pokémon, however, we do understand when one holds no value in the wonderful creatures that surround us!"

"You're just blowing hot air-" Mina started to retort before Gorm cut her off again.

"We are well aware of all the atrocities you acted upon tonight considering your poor Pokémon. We had the entire forest well-surveyed, and we know full well of your abuse-!" Gorm sniffed. Both Lenora and Burgh's heads had rotated towards Mina, Burgh's face a cast of doubt and Lenora's a complete mask of neutrality, though Mina's own was stony.

"You pushed your partner down a hill after verbally assaulting it and then proceeded to disrespect every other Pokémon you came in contact with tonight-especially the bug-types. You hold no regard for your Pokémon or anyone other than yourself; we know you were going to abandon your mission to collect the stolen skull and simply abandon your promise to another. It is truly people like you who drive our cause-you have no right to continue being with our honored friends if you will continue to treat them this way!"

Eevee felt like he had just swallowed his heart whole; it beat limply in the pit of his stomach as he tried to tear his eyes from the ground where they had sunk to during The Gorm Man's rant. He couldn't remember if he was trying to look at Mina, or Burgh, or Lenora, all he knew is that somehow he was looking at the ground even though he couldn't really see anything anymore. _Mina never mistreated us…! She didn't do that to Thorn, or me, and she wouldn't back out on a promise! _He closed his eyes. _She was a good person; she said she would always take care of us- this was not her! He TRUSTED it wasn't her-!_

Mina sighed. "Well don't expect me to apologize."

Eevee heard everyone in the clearing, from Thorn to the grunts to Lenora and Burgh, inhale a sharp breath; Mina's tone was freezing cold and bereft of anything that could be defined as remorse or guilt or consciousness.

"I know pretty damn well I'm not the best trainer, or the most qualified for this job, or even a good person, and that I make plenty of mistakes- and I know that I'm always learning from them." She continued. "My Pokémon are amazing friends, and I certainly don't deserve them. It's true-I pushed Thorn down, and got all of us in trouble, and that I bad-mouth them, but somehow, they keep staying with me and they help me out. I don't know if it's because their crazy or what, but they stay with me, and I'm not going to apologize for that.

"I'm done telling people I'm sorry for being who I am, and for saying the things I say and doing the things I do-short form, they can just fucking get over it. But I will say I know who I am; I know this and I'm striving to fix it. I want to be someone my friends and Pokémon can be proud of-I'm always learning! I'm learning for the sake of my Pokémon!" Mina cracked a smile, looking down. "Lenora, it's true, I was going to leave you high and dry because Thorn got hurt because of me, and I might have had my own motives at the time, I really did want him to be alright. I only signed up for this so I could finish my battle with you- that's just the truth." She shrugged. "And yeah, I fucking hate bug-types because one tried to kill me and my best friend when we were little, and I'm still not over it.

"But I'm not about to stand here and let you shame me for being me, mistakes, ignorance, and all. Yeah, I'm dim as fuck; got an attitude problem like a Snivy; and will whoop your ass three ways from Sunday if you look at me sideways, but I'm trying to become a better person and I'm not trying to be your enemy-you've got a good cause," she shrugged again, but this time she looked up smiling sweetly and drilled her sharpened blue eyes into Gorm's stunned stony face. "But that's beside the point right now- you stole something that doesn't belong to you, and we'd appreciate it if you give it back now."

Thorn let out a whoop and Eevee burst into a fit of silly giggles, finally lifting his eyes to his trainer's own; she wasn't looking directly at him, but he saw her smile out of the corner of her mouth and it was enough for him. He turned around, smiling in Lenora and Burgh's direction but both of them were wearing blank faces so Eevee turned again to look at Gorm, who had also fallen silent, only his face was contorting in the strangest of looks. Eevee couldn't read it, but it definitely didn't match the incredibly even tone the elder man spoke in.

"Be that as it may…. You, all of you: know your enemies, know yourself, and know you need not fear the result of a hundred battles... This time, we shall retreat quietly-" Gorm snapped his fingers and a trio of grunts clamored over to the blond grunt and together they hoisted the desecrated dragon skull out of the grimy mud and threw it to Lenora's feet. She stooped down and ran her fingers over the sides of it, soiling her fingers as she checked it over for cracks and fractures; her eyes drifted up and narrowed as Gorm continued talking.

"To secure the liberation of Pokémon, we will steal from Trainers! Even though you are Gym Leaders, we will not tolerate any further obstruction from you. In any case, we will settle this someday." His eyes flew to Mina for a fraction of a second before closing and nodding to a grunt to the left of him." I hope you are looking forward to that time as much as I..."

The nodded-to grunt withdrew something from a pocket within her chainmail, and as the other grunts closed in around her, she forcefully threw it into the ground where it exploded in a puff of sour-smelling smoke. The purple mist spread out over the clearing, choking Eevee to the point where he had to put his head between his paws and close his eyes until he sensed the fog had dispersed away. When he opened his eyes, Mina and the others were still choking, but the grunts and The Gorm Man were gone, not even their footprints left behind. It just looked like the entire area had been swept clean of their existence.

"Darn trouble-makers…" Lenora groaned, heaving the huge skull onto her broad shoulders with a look of disgust aimed at the spot the grunts had just been standing.

"Weeeeeeeeeeell that was certainly interesting! " Burgh sang, shoving his hands in his pockets and walking across the clearing over to Mina. He reached down and gave Eevee a quick scratch behind the ear on his way over, but Eevee just watched him as the tall man approached his trainer. "You've got toooooooons of heart, kiddo! And while it pains me so that you dislike my beeeeeeloooooooved bug-types," Burgh did a fake swoon while winking at Mina, "I look forward to you challenging my gym, if Castelia's your next stop on your journey! But now, I must depart-! I did walk all the way here~"

Lenora suddenly appeared at their side, eyes wide as she stared flabbergasted at Burgh. "You walked all the way over the Sky Arrow bridge at this time at night?! I'm surprised you didn't get mugged." She snorted.

Burgh grinned, rocking back and forth on his heels. "I dooooooooon't have any moneeeeeeeey. I'd wouldn't be worth the time tooooo mug meeeeeeee."

Lenora snorted again. "Burgh, you are anything _but_ a starving artist."

Eevee didn't quite understand the comment, but Burgh just shrugged and leaned over to kiss Lenora on the temple. "Be that as it maaaaaaaaaaay, it's time for me to bounce, my little Surskits~ Ciao!" with that he turned around and took a fast walk to the edge of the tree line, where Eevee could now see a path leading off into the forest spiraled on, and waved a long hand over his shoulder as he disappeared from view.

Lenora heaved a sigh, drawing Eevee's attention back to her and his trainer. Lenora was looking at Mina, and Mina was just staring right back at her. "Hmph, is what that grumpy old man said was true?" she questioned.

Mina didn't break eye contact. "What I said was true too-"

Eevee tensed up again, expecting another attack like Lenora had launched on Mina back the gym earlier, but Lenora just sighed again, turning away and heading for the path Burgh had just took. "Well, Burgh was right about that-you got heart, not to mention guts, kid. I may have misjudged you. Come back to the gym when you're ready-" she started again, but ended up biting off the last thing she was about to say and just ended with a 'later' as she disappeared off down the path.

Eevee didn't waste a moment bounding up to Mina and running his side up against her scratched legs and not caring if the burrs stuck to her laces ended up in his fur or if he got bloody from her cuts. He was so undeniably happy, his faith restored in his trainer; everything seemed right in the world.

_"I'm so proud of you-!" _he mewed, appreciating the scratch she gave his back in return for the rubs. He lifted his head to speak directly to her, but he found she had turned her head away and had taken a step away from him.

"Eevee I need to talk to Thorn right now-"

_"Hmm?" _Eevee hummed, a little confused. Why did she step away? What-?

"I'm putting you back in your ball right now- I don't need you anymore."

_What-?_

_WHAT-?_

"Eevee I told you, back up, you're going back in your ball. You're not needed right now."

_WHAT?_

_WAIT!_

_WHAT?!_

But Mina was pulling out his pokeball and was already aiming it at his forehead. Eevee sucked in a quick breath-his last breath of the clean forest air- and blinked as his mind started sliding pieces into place. He wanted to shake himself but the beam was coming and time was still moving too slow to illicit any action.

_Of course_; he realized. He was kidding himself. He was always kidding himself. She wanted Thorn with her earlier, not him. She wanted to help Thorn earlier, she wasn't thinking about him. She was always thinking about Thorn: they were family. The original two pieces of the puzzle-the core was all that mattered. I'm just kidding myself, his echoes reminded him.

The problem was with him-he only liked everything. He was only capable of liking things-carrots, infomercials, his brothers, his friends, his home, Mike, Mina, Thorn; everyone else was capable of love.

And he wasn't sure if he loved anything.

Time sped up again and he resigned to his fate, closing his eyes and feeling his body writhe within itself and disperse for a moment before he knew he was just part of a beam going back into his ball. It was in these moments of transition he knew he could not think or feel or be, and tonight he was thankful for this transition. But it was far too short.

He didn't even feel like being when he knew he was within the confines of his unearthly empty space that was all he could call his own. He just didn't do anything; he chose not to feel nothing-to just enjoy being nothing for a while. The emptiness of his space welcomed it.

**OOOOOOO**

"Thorn," I heard my dried throat cough out. The silence of the clearing seemed to want to swallow the offending noise, but somehow it hung onto the air like the mushy humidity that filled the entire Pinwheel Forest. I wanted to moan about all the humidity, and ergo the bugs, but I forced myself to not chicken out of this talk. It's been a long time coming, and with all of this crap from tonight, the tables had turned around and there wouldn't be another opportunity like this.

"Thorn-!"

_"What?" _he mumbled, turning to look at me. I was afraid my breath would hitch in my throat, but actually staring at him now, I was finding the courage to either be the biggest prick ever or to save our relationship.

"I know something's wrong, no matter what you say-"

_"So what?" _Thorn said tonelessly, though he didn't attempt to hide the problem this time.

I put my hands behind my back, grabbing them by the elbows and closing my eyes while I tried to sound out the words I had been repeating in my head for the better part of the past hour. "_Indifference hurts much more, both you and the ones around you, and any amount of pain would never be worth it to be indifferent."_

Thorn's eyes went weird as he looked my face over. _"Da faq you spacking 'bout?"_

I grimaced a little bit. "I meant everything I said back there… and I meant everything I've thought about tonight about you."

_"What, that I'm a POS?"_

"No-! Don't even play like that!" I was about to blow up again, but I swallowed my anger and pride. "We're not fine! And I know this. We have to be honest to each other- you can't just keep going off on your own and acting like a stuck-up kid for no reason just because it suits you, and not tell me why. I'll be the first to agree we don't get along very well, but… I just don't want you to hate me." I dung my stubby fingernails into the palms of my hands, wanting them to hurt more than they did. "I had my own motives for wanting to take you the Pokecenter earlier, but in the end, I wanted you to be alright, and that wasn't an entirely selfish wish! And… I just don't want you unhappy." I grimaced again.

"I make plenty enough peoples' lives hell just being around, but someone told me to embrace who I am and to understand that you follow me because you trust in me and accept who I am, but happiness comes above all of that. I had full mind to just let you go…. If you want too. And I won't cry or say I'm sorry, you can just… go." I had already withdrawn Thorn's ball from my bag and I held it in my left hand. I offered it out to him.

"You can break it if you want. It's not my choice to dictate anymore."

Thorn had closed his eyes and crossed his arms, tailing flicking back and forth as he stood silent for a few moments. _"Do you know what happens when you break a pokemon's ball?"_

"I…no… I don't." I stuttered.

Thorn chuckled a bit_. __"Neither do I."_

I frowned; I had expected one of us to either be yelling at the other or bursting into tears about now. My heart felt almost underwhelmed; this made the first notes of nervousness start playing through my system. My palms were sweating now, making my nails hurt even less now_. __Dammit why won't you hurt more?!_

_"And I don't hate you-"_

"Why?" It was indeed a reasonable feeling to feel against me- -so I had to ask why.

Thorn looked sideways, refusing to look at me again. _"I honestly don't hate you- we just work at two different intervals. You know, we just don't… I dunno, merge? And neither of us really try to get on the same page with the other. We're both used to doing our own thing."_

I thought about what my Servine was saying for a moment. It made perfect sense; we didn't really work together unless like one of us was about to like die or something. We disagreed on just about everything. We refused to work together. "But that's not the only problem." I looked sideways guiltily. "I'm not exactly nice."

Thorn smirked. _"I'm no peach either."_

I frowned lightly."That doesn't mean anything though. Say it if you're not happy. Say it if you want something. Say it if you're fed up- we scratch that because you do that on a regular basis, but say it if you're done with me. If you don't want anything to do with me, then the feelings mutual. I'm done hurting you."

Thorn's face was falling now, sinking into a sad grimace, his whole body going limp as he uncrossed his arms and finally turned my direction again. _"Some things are beyond fixing. You can't hurt something that hasn't been fixed enough to hurt again."_

I blinked at his words, my own face falling to a small sad smile to join his. "Join the club."

Thorn blinked his time, looking down. Something passed through us then, something unspoken that neither of us would ever be able to speak out loud; shame. We both knew it well. And we had been refusing to acknowledge it for fear the other would look down on the other for it. Shame was a language we both could speak well-but we couldn't communicate with it fluently until now.

"We went too fast…" I spoke slowly. We tried to get into different routines with different circumstances, expecting more out of the other that what was possible at the time. We had missed the first crucial step, trust, and jumped to step five way before it was time.

Thorn nodded at this, lifting his eyes to lock with my own.

I nodded back; the underwhelming feeling had been banished from my heart. All the heaviness of our realizations were crushing down and making it difficult to think and breath. Was this the part where I walked away? Was this the part where Thorn walked away? This wasn't a movie-and if it was the script had been thrown out the window and had a flaming piano dropped on it a long time ago.

"Are we going to try again? Like… starting over?"

Thorn didn't say anything; he didn't even move. I was not prepared for this-he always had something to say. The notes of worry were chorusing in my gut now making me sweat even more.

"I've… I've done something horrible before, and I told myself I could do it again, but I don't want to let go this time. I want to try!"

_"Try being equals… instead of owners?" _Thorn raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah… partners." I said in a bit of a small, and very unsure voice. I was still very nervous, to all who couldn't understand that already.

_"Partners." _Thorn echoed.

I smiled. "We'll try."

_"I'm horrible too… so don't feel upset about it." _Thorn shrugged. _"Maybe one day I'll tell you, but for now… we'll try." _he smiled back. _"We'll try."_

It wasn't a conviction. It wasn't an agreement. It wasn't a promise to stay together forever.

But it was a promise to try.

"We need something to make it official!"

_"Whaa?" _Thorn said, eyebrows rising so high it wouldn't have been surprised if the popped off his forehead. I took a few steps forward, eyes searching the trees and ground around us for _something-_though I wasn't sure what.

"You heard me- we need to make it official. You know, like a symbol of cease fire." I said over my shoulder, continuing to scan the ground. Most of it was just overturned muck and rocks from the TP nerds trying to bury Lenora's skull, not many plants or flowers around to grab. I was thinking of finding a flower sort of like the one Thorn had first given me back on Route 1, so that maybe I could press it and make it into a bookmark or something, but wasn't having much luck with finding one.

_"You… are a lunatic."_

"I am-huh?" A glimmer in the grass caught my eye. There was a little bit of a lip of a mini-cliff that led down to the outgoing path on the right side of the clearing, and lying in the dew-silkied grass, something green was nestled in the shadow of an outcropping of dandelions. I reached down, reaching around until my fingers closed around something small and smooth, and I pulled it out and into the moonlight.

_"It's a Miracle Seed…" _Thorn suddenly chimed in from over my shoulder, coming up to my clasped fingers to see it better.

It was indeed a seed: a small oval-shaped green object that almost seemed to sparkle from within-though I'm sure it was just my imagination. It was about the size of my thumbnail, but was incredibly sturdy, and didn't even crack when I tried squeezing it between my thumb and pointer finger. Smiling, I turned back to Thorn.

"It's a Miracle Seed's Promise-" I said, taking one of his shrunken hands in my own and slipping the seed into his palm. "A promise to try."

Thorn's hand clasped around it, and he brought it back to his side. _"A promise to try."_

I stood back up, looking down at him as he rolled the tiny seed between his hands. "Don't lose it." I smirked.

He didn't even look up, but he smirked back, _"Wouldn't dream of it."_

**OOOOOOO**

"Arceus-! You're alive!"

Thorn and I had been walking out of the little gravel path that took us out of the forest, and at the sound of someone sprinting out way, I looked up from watching Thorn mess with his seed to see a tall thin figure storming towards us, practically sprinting behind him the stout form of another person, this one short and chubby with the most ridiculous hat ever fashioned perched precariously off the side of her head.

A very flustered Cheren came to a stop right in front of me, practically stepping on my toes as he lashed out and grabbed my forearms, and holding them up to the light of the midnight moon. "Did you encounter any poison oak? What about bug-types? Quick, how many fingers am I holding up?!" he shoved three fingers, two on his left hand one on his right, in my face, dark eyes intense with worry from behind the rims of his glasses.

"Ha… hehe-" I snorted, pushing his fingers away from my face, and taking a step back so I could see him more clearly without him being in my personal bubble. "Cheren, cool it-I'm fine." I held up my arms again, turning them in the light and revealing only slightly bruised skin. "See, no poison oak." _Of course, leave it to my friends to remember the only two things I actually fear._

Cheren visibly loosened, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly and attempting to say something before the other figure, Bianca, launched herself over his shoulder and took her turn to invade my personal bubble.

"What happened?! We tried calling you like… a bajillion times! And you never picked up once!" the blond whined, shaking her hands frantically through the air like she was acting out a freakish puppet show. "We were sooooo bored!"

"Um…" I frowned; I lifted my right arm up into the light and switched on my Xtranseiver-which I _know _was on when we departed for the forest oh… three hours ago (according to my Xtranseiver's clock which read 12:19). The screen lit up for a moment before going staticy again, only the neon sea-green clock numbers still bright on the screen. I furrowed my brow, taking a step forward, nudging myself onto Cheren's steel-tipped boots this time. The device flashed again, this time staying lit as a multitude of little icons suddenly exploded on the screen. "Holy Arceus-!" Yeah, Bianca had called me a bunch- forty-six times to be exact. I must've been stuck in a dead zone for the better part of the past few hours, so that was why I hadn't gotten them earlier.

My face fell again as I gave her a limp frown. "Arceus Bianca, what did you guys _do _the entire night?"

Bianca giggled, digging around in a pocket of her pencil-ish shirt for a moment before brandishing a box-shaped thing in the moonlight, earning a very exasperated eye-roll from Cheren. I swear I nearly choked on my own spit, I was laughing so hard; it was a frickin' old school _Gameboy _system-as in the original colored one, and sticking out of the top was none other than a very beat-up copy of the original _Pokemon Red. _"We played this!" Bianca explained. "Well, actually we tried to play it, but we ending up spending a good half hour fighting over who choose as a starter-"

"A starter we ended up boxing that Bianca accidentally released," Cheren grimaced.

"And then we lost a bunch of times at the first gym, but it took us forever to get there because we got lost on Route 1." Bianca pouted sheepishly.

Cheren just shook his head at her. "So long story short, we made a fool of ourselves on a stupid children's game for two and a half hours between attempting to get a hold of you." He concluded.

"We didn't even get to play the game about the children's card game yet!"

"Okay, that's where I draw the line-"

_"Ah, Chery boy, it's so wonderful to see you again! I missed you soooo much!" _Thorn suddenly piped up, appearing on my head and edging his way to the brim of my hat where he could smirk at Cheren directly. _"Oh tell me you missed me too~!"_

Cheren just gaped a Thorn like a fish, whether it was because Thorn had just spoke him or because Cheren realized Thorn had evolved, he just stared a hole through his head before cringing away with a narrowed look on his face. "I think I hated you less before now…"

I snorted. "He's actually just saying he missed you."

"Yeah, like I'd believe that-"

_"Hold me." _Cheren paled as Thorn threw himself into his arms, flailing completely dead weight into Cheren. Cheren gapped again like a fish, arms flailing in an attempt to catch Thorn before he fell to the ground. Thorn grinned as he purposely slipped between Cheren's fingers and landed in front of him on the ground, grinning as Cheren took a stupefied step back and nearly tripped over himself. Without even looking, Thorn stuck out a hand and his miracle seed dropped like a gleaming mini falling star into his grasp.

Tepig, who had been behind Cheren, took a few steps forward, shoving his stubby snout in Thorn's fist as he tried to nose out what Thorn had in his hand. _"Hey-whacha got there?" _he oinked.

_"Fat kids don't get to see." _Thorn snapped, tightening his fist and leaning away from the nosey fire pig.

"Hmph!" Cheren grunted, seeming to just have recovered from Thorn's little stunt, as he leaned over and grabbed me by the wrist and gave me a sharp tug in his direction as he began to storm off. "Regardless, we need to get you vaccinated! You could have contracted something from all those freakish fiends in there, or some type of internal poison oak infection, or even rabies from your Servine! We have to get you checked out!"

"I've got to go see Lenora-!" I retorted, pulling back in the opposite direction and effectively slowing him down a bit; we both weighted basically the same, but I was definitely stronger from all those weight training classes in high school.

"Don't be an idiot, Mina, you may be sick!"

I tried a different approach."Tired, so tired… carry me~" I flopped forward, making Cheren stop rampaging for a second so he could turn around to catch me. I made no effort to help him hold me up; I was pretty beat, and I wasn't about to miss a free piggy-back ride and get off my extremely sore and bruised legs.

"Ack!" Cheren moaned, stumbling under my weight as he tried to right me in his arms. "Come on, I can't carry you; you're too heavy!"

I popped open one eye. "I weight just as much as you do."

"And that's because you eat your weight in junk food everyday! Uh, I can't carry you bridal style!"

"Then give me a piggy-back ride." I reasoned.

Cheren sighed, but turned around and squatted down, holding me by my shoulder to keep my upright as I climbed on to his back, locking my legs around his slim middle and wrapping my arms around his shoulders. "Huhh…huhh… I think I got you-"

_"Ooh, me too!"_

"Gah!"

**OOOOOOO**

"To the left… no, my left… Clyde that's not my left. I said… no! MY left! Do the fingers trick if you have to-oh Arceus, do any of you know your right from your left?!" Lenora grumped as she tried to fix the train wreck she was directing.

We were back in the main room at the Nacrene museum, and Lenora had wasted no time in getting her exhibit set back up proper again. By the time the five of us had gotten back, Clyde and Hawes and a coupla other security guys had already put most of the dragon skeleton back together, but they were obviously missing the head and they had apparently mixed up the finger bones with the toe bones and put like six tail vertebrae in the wrong places, and got _their _heads chewed off by Lenora. And now, with the skeleton correctly reassembled, the previously shattered spine having been successfully holding together, they were _attempting _to get it back in the right place on its pedestal in the middle of the room-the key word being attempting.

"Jeez, now you moved it too far to the left! And not even the right left!" Lenora groaned again, shaking her hands furiously through the air. "Okay let's try this again-MY left you idiots…"

I snorted again when one of the IT guys helping got whacked in the head with the massive tail, causing him to lose his grip and making the entire tail jerk sideways and ruining the dragon spine's alignment. The dude fell to the ground along with several other workers, earning them all a string of profane curses from Lenora, making me laugh harder. I turned away before there could be any bloodshed though, reaffixing my attention back where it was before I starting gawking; I was back to bandaging myself and my various injuries up, to which I was just about done.

I was covered in crisscrossing bandages (normal beige colored ones this time instead of my normal Hello Delcatty ones; Lenora took one look at the box and gagged and basically shoved the box of regular band-aids at me) all the way up the legs, starting from my shin to mid-thigh and had an ace bandage wrapped around my hand (I had apparently sprained my wrist in the fall down the hill) along with a bunch of gauze medical-taped to my back and stuck up my nose to sop up the wicked bad nosebleed I hadn't even realized I had until I finally looked in a mirror. I fastened the latches on the first-aid kit Lenora had loaned me, which I had ended up using about half of all the stuff in there, closing it up and setting it against the wall I was leaning up against when Thorn giggled next to me.

He was propped up on my bag, which was leaning against the wall, and was watching the spectacle I had prided myself from looking away from, to which I now noticed had escalated again now that Lenora was clearly threatening one of the IT guys with something less than savory, by the look on the stricken man's face. I had taken care of Thorn first, and not surprisingly enough, he had ended up needing more doctoring than I did: I had immediately spritzed him down with a Paralyze Heal I found in the kit, along with a healthy slathering of Neosporin and forcing down a few Advil just to dull the pain while I ace bandaged about forty percent of his midsection and held him down to disinfect his sword cut with hydrogen peroxide before slapping several large band-aids over _that _and affixing an ice pack to a nasty bump on his head before even attempting to work on my own wounds. He seemed totally fine now, even enjoying himself at the expense of others' pain-just like normal.

"Okay fine, take five you guys." Lenora deadpanned as she turned away from the fuster cluck she had just be trying to correct, looking just as winded as the poor verbally-abused workers did. Seeing my opportunity to find out about finishing our gym battle, I got up and stumbled my way over to her and tapped her on the back.

"So when am I gonna earn my gym badge?" I asked pointedly.

Lenora hardly battled and eyelash at me, turning away as she took a swig from her bottle of water. "There's no need for that."

"Da-what?!" I snapped, stalking right after her and getting up in her face. "I went through all of that mess to get your skull back just so we could finish our battle and I could earn my gym badge. So what the hell are you talking about?!"

Lenora took another swig of water before answering, turquoise eyes tired as she looked at me over the neck of the bottle. "In the event of a tie, by a rule in the gym leader's contract, there's a bunch of messy paperwork they have to fill out, but as the gym leader, they can decide whether or not to give the challenger a gym badge."

"So… what?"

Lenora shrugged as she sidestepped me and continued on her way to where she had been headed before I had stopped her-which looked like the front desk. "I'm going to deal with that in the morning, so you'll be getting your gym badge then too."

"Wha-wait… ooooohhhhh." It finally sunk in to me. Lenora gave me a withering look as she crumpled up her empty 'Victory Road Springs' water bottle and tossed it into the green recycling bucket underneath the desk before brushing past me and clapping her hands to rouse the workers back to work. They groaned and mumbled, but they took their places around the gigantic skeleton again, and within ten minutes, they had it in the correct place on the pedestal again and everyone sighed in relief.

"Now dust it off~" Lenora added.

Several janitor-looking people groaned at this, and went off to a closet to retrieve whatever they needed as Lenora stood proudly in front of her complete prized artifact again. I edged up next to her and stared up into the massive ribcage that just hours ago was about to crush me; thinking about that, I self-consciously took a step backwards.

"I wonder…"

Lenora and I both turned to the right to see the person who had piped up all of a sudden. Cheren was looking the ancient skeleton over, eyes always coming back and settling on the huge head resting on its prehistoric shoulders. "I wonder what Team Plasma had in mind for such a strange thing… and under the circumstances as well…" Cheren pondered out loud.

"Well…" Lenora started, taking a step forward and turning so that she could look at both of us directly now. She pointed up at the skeleton, manicured pointer finger upright direction our attention to the skull back in its rightful place on the beast's shoulders. "They did mention something about 'reviving the legends' during their little monologue before they high-tailed it to the forest. Perhaps they were thinking it was some clue to how to do that."

"But what would a dusty old dragon skull be good for?" Bianca suddenly popped into the conversation, propping her chin on my shoulder as she came up behind me and addressed Lenora.

"Perhaps they thought it _was _the actual skull of the legendary dragon-types…" Cheren reasoned, glancing from the skeleton to Lenora like a student looking for the teacher to affirm his answer.

"Legendary dragon-types?" I heard myself asking.

"Zekrom and Reshiram…" Cheren spoke hollowly, his attention back on the dragon bones again.

"Precisely." Lenora nodded.

But Cheren only shook his head. "But Lenora, this is clearly a Dragonite skeleton-why would they think it was the remains of one of the legendary Pokémon?" he questioned pointedly.

Lenora took this time to direct our attentions to the little gold plaque on the front of the mighty dragon's platform. "We have never gotten exact classification on what species of Pokémon this truly is; we have our own speculations an theories, but in truth, this creature does not fit any of the standards of any know Pokémon alive today."

"But it's clearly a Dragonite! The large ribcage, small wings, and spiked skull are all clear indicators-" Cheren interjected before Lenora added on to her statement.

"This beast is well over fifteen feet tall, much taller than any Dragonite ever recorded living today, as well as its wings being _smaller _and its ribcage larger that today's Dragonites standards. Yes, it resembles the Kanto pseudo-legendary well, but it is clearly not one of them." Lenora looked up in awe at her beast, turning away to face it instead of us. "It may be the link between the dragon-types of the past and the dragons of today-it may even be related to the great Unova legends Zekrom and Reshiram, but we may never know. All we can do is appreciate it for what it gives us and continue to dig into its past and try to finally give this mysterious beast the name it deserves."

I raised my hand. "Dragonite?"

By the look on Cheren's face, I had clearly shattered the mood and had driven about half of us listening to face palming. "It's a dragon-type Pokémon native to Kanto-the same place your Eevee comes from." Cheren explained, patting me on the shoulder Bianca's chin wasn't occupying. "Pokedex it sometime."

"Well, what it was and is is clearly no of importance to that Team Plasma, and I am thankful for that." Lenora breathed sincerely. "Because of our good fortune, we will be able to continue to speculate the origin of this magnificent specimen for years to come."

"Pokémon really are such amazing beings! All the wonder and mystery that surround them-" Bianca added dreamily.

"HEY! Why are you not working yet! I told you to dust it-am I gonna have to make you massage its feet too?!" Lenora hollered abruptly at a group of reclining janitors in the corner of the room, storming off after them and leaving the three of us to stare at the prehistoric dragon.

"Such mysterious beings…" Cheren echoed before wondering off behind a shelf and disappearing from view, quick and silent as a ghost-type.

Bianca gave me a grin and giggle as she popped out from behind me and went traipsing after Cheren, leaving me alone to marvel at the pedestal. _Beings with unknown potential… _I thought about what Ghetesis had said on that day back in Accumula town; Pokémon had so much power and so much mystery about them… we were truly lucky to be able to share a world with them. _I _was truly lucky to get to share a world with them.

_"So when are we leaving? I dunno about you, but I'm about ready to blow this popsicle stand." _Thorn chimed from below my feet. I shifted my gaze down and saw he was leaning up against my leg, staring up at me with his big maroon eyes.

"Well we ain't leaving until I get my badge tomorrow morning… but yeah, I'm sick of this town too." I grinned, looking up again. I didn't look as I felt him climbing his way up my back and situating himself on my shoulder and dangling his stubby feet over the front of them.

_"I'm so tired, I swear I could sleep for a hundred years."_

I smirked at him out from the corner of my mouth. "The best I can offer ya is like three hours. I'm getting here the second the doors open so I can get my badge and bail."

_"Then you'll be carrying me then. There's no way in the reverse world I'm getting up that early." _Thorn stared at me, utterly profound that I would suggest such a thing.

"Well just maybe I will… partner."

* * *

**DEAR ARCEUS THE FEELS AKNFQP;GHIOSGMOSIV;;VK ALL THE BITTERSWEET FEELS**

**Anywhoooo- Yodels peoples. It's PG(13) and T.**

**So, I'm trying to get batter about finishing chapters at a more decent rate... it's summer now, so I'll totes have more time. Anyways- THIS CHAPTER MURDERED ME IN THE FEELS AREA-AND I'M THE FRIGGIN AUTHOR. Sorry, but I've been looking forward to this-Mina's and Thorn's relationship can move on to a different level now with the new perspective and mutual respect ^.^ Happee stuffes**

**TO STELLAR-PRIME- I KNOW YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT PANPOUR I'VE BEEN DROPPING HINTS AND I DROPPED A FEW MORE IN THIS CHAPTER YOU SHOULD HAVE AN IDEA BY NOW AND IF YOU DON'T then well... okay -.-**

**TO KING OF RANTING- NO MORE THORN MONKEY BUTT JOKES OR WHATEVER YOU CALLED THEM YOU BROUGHT UP THE THING A WHILE BACK BUT HEY IT'S DONE NOW AND I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY BECAUSE THAT MAKES ME HAPPY AND IF YOU'RE NOT HAPPY THEN TELL ME AND I'M NOT EVEN SURE WHY I'M STILL YELLING so I think I'm just going to take off the caps lock now.**

**TO ILUVCANDYILUVCANDY- OMIGOD WELCOME BACK MY WONDERFUL BETA I MISSED YOU AND YOUR WONDERFUL CRACK-JOB WRITING I'M SO HAPPY YOU'RE OFF PUNISHMENT BACK AND WELCOME HOME!**

**So next time-THE BRIDGE OF SKYARROW, A BUNCH OR CRACK-I-NESS, SOME JEDI MOVES, AAAAND... I'll let you guess the last part ;)**


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